"Is the Mustang in Trouble? Recalls Galore"

Music. It's time to buckle up for this week's Let's Talk Wheels with Mike Herzing and Jeremy Bierenbaum.

Auto shop is now in session. Today is the Mustang in trouble? What cars are gone in 60 seconds and there's a lot of them. How about a 32-year-old car with 16 miles on it? Those are just a few of our topics today. Welcome to your favorite auto show, Let's Talk Wheels. I'm Mike Herzing, and every week we give you automotive and power sports news, interviews, car reviews, and classic car information from my co-star.

Jeremy Burenbaum, who's based in Southern California and amongst all the smoke and the fires. I'm glad you're safe. Come on in, buddy. What's happening? Hey, wild week out here in California, to say the least, especially Los Angeles, but we won't get into it. It's been all over the news and it's been crazy, but I've been safe, If unfortunately, you know, a lot of destruction has happened and we feel for everyone that is going through it right now. Boy, no kidding.

I don't know what it's going to do with all those people that are wandering around now. They're going to have even more. So I don't know. It's a tough situation on all ends. All right. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's start with a news and notes segment and talk about Mustang. Oh, man, I can't believe we mentioned this a little bit last week. I cannot believe the Mach-E outsold the regular Mustang. I'm just, I'm dying here. I was just, it's so sad.

You know, this is not a high volume car, but we never thought it would be as low volume as it's been, at least this last year. 44,000, three buyers officially for 24. Which is the lowest sales in 60 years for the Mustang. It's a lot, 44,000. Let's not knock that. That's a lot of cars. That's a lot. But, you know, it outsold. Camaro and Challenger and all those guys, for sure. Those are gone, you know, for the most part. So this car is standing alone in

terms of competition at this point, right? In 24 and 25. You'd think the sales would be better if they don't have a Camaro and they don't have the Challenger. I just, I don't know how practical it is. For a lot of people, a two-door sports car is. Oh, I know, but you've got to love it. It's great. Oh, definitely. It's as good as they've ever been, I think. I really have. I mean, I don't know, 67 was pretty good. I'm just knocking the time, I guess, that it's around right now.

Yeah, well, the sales are down 9.5%, so we'll get better next year. Quick, let's move over to MINI real quick. You know, you've got a MINI. You're Mr. MINI. I'm like MINI. I love the brand, but unfortunately, it's gotten really BMW-ified, if I can say that. Ooh, break my wallet. Yes, that's what the BMW stands for. People always ask me, what's that for? You have a BMW motorcycle. I said, yes, it means break my wallet.

And it will yeah no it's just got its own bmw into idiosyncrasies before you like the early ones still had that mini feel you know yeah a lot like the original one and unfortunately it might just be that they're trying to pack a lot of technology in these cars and they've gotten bigger over time which is the you know the fight with everyone they say about yeah favorite cars, But they were down 21.5% compared to 2023. The whole- Man, he's trying to kind of explain it, though.

They had some issues with new models coming out. Yeah, they had a stop sale, didn't it? Yeah, on the braking system. And there was a recall. And so there was a lot of cars that couldn't get to dealer floors. And before those cars even got to the dealers, the dealers told them, sell through your stock. Let's make room for these new cars coming in. And then they didn't have new cars coming in, and dealers didn't have inventory to deal on, unfortunately. But that's not the case for 2025.

These cars are ready to hit or at the showrooms. They even have all the backlog of cars that they're fixing that are going to come out to the showrooms. And then pretty soon, we'll see the convertible and the John Cooper Works variants. Oh, wow. Okay, another real quick one. Let's talk about Mercedes. You know, they had a pretty decent year. They had positive sales growth. Man, they sold $324,000, and that's really great.

They gained 9%. But what's weird is, if you kind of drill down a little bit, the SL, which is, to me, one of my favorite Mercedes, their sales tanked. And I know, is it just because they're too expensive, Jeremy? I mean, it's $112,000 to $200,000 car, depending on how you option it. And, you know, these are kind of big on the depreciation scale. So... I don't know. They're a great car. You can't knock it. They're one of the most beautiful cars made. People got to be able to afford them.

They got to be able to afford them. And then you got to say, do I need a two-door sports car? Kind of like the Mustang. You know, nowadays, everyone's gravitating towards these big SUVs that they can do everything in. Yes, folks, Mike Herzing and Jeremy, let's talk wheels. If you just tuned in, we're talking about some of the car sales. Ford has got some recalls. He's got two of them, a couple of recalls, and ends up to be in what, about 200,000 cars or something like that?

Yeah, well, the first 100,000 come from a risk of fire. Oh, okay. And that is the affected cars of the 2020 to 22 Ford Escape, Maverick, Lincoln Corsair. And these are just the models equipped with a 2.5 liter hybrid plug-in engine. Yeah, yeah. They had a problem with oil pumps or something, an oiling system, and the engine would throw a rod. Of course, if it throws a rod, then the piece of the metal of the piston and the rod go through the side of the block. It leaks oil everywhere.

If it hits the hot exhaust, because it's still hot, because this all happens in the blink of an eye, then it can actually start a fire under the hood. How about that? So the dealers have a modification to the under-engine shield. Yes. Active grill shutter for the affected vehicles. Right. There have been no issues or accidents reported, so that's good to hear. Yeah. And Ford's going to let the customers who are affected know when and how they can get their vehicle fixed for the recall.

Okay. They've also got a recall, expanding an early recall of the 2021 Expedition and Navigator SUVs, adding about 27,000 to the initial recall of 39 because they're catching fire again. And they're telling people to park them outside. How about that? And this one, this has had some incidents. 21 cars have been affected by this, and they have a fix for the 800-watt cooling fan system, which has parts currently available for about a third of the vehicles.

So if you want to get yours taken care of, I would jump on it. But the interesting thing to me is the vehicles with the 700-watt cooling fan won't have parts available until September. And I double-checked to make sure that this article is from this year. It was written, you know, early January. So that's saying that these vehicles might not have got fixed. Written last week. Yeah. Yeah. Third quarter of this year, which is kind of shocking.

Shocking. It is. What can I say? But, you know, what's shocking is, think of all the cars that you guys have lost in California. Car sales. Yeah, totally. And one thing I found interesting today is they said one of the biggest risks right now is going into the area because of lithium ion battery contamination in the air. And that's not something you think about, but California is one of the biggest

markets for electric cars. And the Palisades is probably one of the more affluent areas that has a lot of them, I would say. A lot of foo-foo cars. I mean, I feel so sorry for everybody there, but you know, Don't forget, we've still got the Carolinas and all of the East Coast that was just obliterated by the hurricane. And so we've got that. So, man, our country on both sides, it's not happy.

There's a lot of openings for construction out there. People argue against global warming, but I got to say, we're having more and more of these natural disasters in large scale more often, it seems like nowadays. Keep electing them. That's why. I don't know about that. Those are natural disasters. That's for darn sure. We've got a crazy show today. It's going to be fun. Jeremy, we're all sorry for you. I'm glad that you guys are safe and your family's safe and everybody's safe

and this kind of stuff. But boy, what a nightmare. The global impact of this incident. Yeah, and you can't get around town. I imagine it takes you forever to get home now. You can't cut through the canyons, can you? It's tough, and we won't be doing that for a long time. Oh, well, what can I say? All right, folks, coming up today, I've got our car review on the Nissan Pathfinder, the Rock Creek Edition.

It's pretty cool. And we're going to talk about some emails that you guys have sent to Mike at Let'sTalkWheels.com. And we're going to, one of the things we're going to do in one of the segments is talk about classics, $25,000 less that you can buy, those kind of bargains. And we're also going to talk about some more affordable things and really some top 25 cars. So we're going to do all that stuff. But you've got a busy day.

So hang on. More Let's Talk Wheels coming up after this quick break. Music. Welcome back to Let's Talk Wheels. Mike Herzing and Jeremy Berenbaum. Folks, this is our car review segment. And this week, I was a lucky guy. I was driving a Nissan Pathfinder. And the model I had was the Rock Creek Edition, which is their off-road bad boy. It's kind of fun. You know, this is not something you're going to take off-road, but you can take it a little off-road.

Seeing as how it'll tow 6,000 pounds, you can pull your little camper out there and kind of in the woods and things like that. So, you know, who knows if your house has a problem, you have to get your camper out there and live in your camper. Yeah, no, no kidding. No, no kidding. I know that's not what you're going to say. You're going to say something else. But this is a midsize SUV. It can either be seven or eight passenger, depending on what the second row,

whether you get a bench seat or the captain's chairs. This one had the captain's chairs. You know, you can even get the second row heated and all that stuff, heated and cool. That's really kind of nice. I mean, you know, what's funny is the Pathfinder has been around for 40 years. I never realized that. You know, and it's as good as it's ever been. It used to be a little bit more brutal. It was an off-roader. You know, it was like a truck, a little truck.

It beats you up. Now it's so comfortable. It's like a luxury car. But it's got a 3.5 V6. You know, the Rockpreak has a little bit more horsepower. It's 295 horsepower. And this thing scoots. And they got rid of the CVT transmission. Thank you, Jesus. And they have a nine-speed automatic, which is very responsive. And it's just about right. I mean, I'm kind of glad we're kind of topping out on some of these 10, 12-speed whatever. I mean, come on, guys. Too many. Too many. Too many gears. Yeah.

All it does is ship. I mean, this thing's really neat. This is all-wheel drive, and it's got seven different drive modes. You can stuff off-roader, ice or snow, or any of this kind of stuff. For 2025, they added a power liftgate, which is standard on the SB and the Rock Creek editions. Let me explain the models on it. They've got an S, which starts in the $38,000 range. The SV, which is a little over $41,000. The SL, which is a really popular model.

This is probably what most of them are probably sold. That sounds, that's for $44,000. The Rock Creek, which has got the skid plates and the off-road wheels and tires. And some little cladding and a little bit different. It's really neat stitching on the inside, a lot of kind of stuff. It's really nice. That's around $46,000. That's what we were driving. Got a huge sunroof, by the way. It's really nice. And then they have the Platinum, which is 51. That is top of the food chain.

Really, really nice. And as you and I said earlier, you're thinking, you think, you know, I like this better than a 4Runner. I like this actually better than maybe the Land Cruiser and this kind of stuff. This is a great vehicle. It competes with figures like 4Runner, the Land Cruiser, maybe the Honda Pilot, maybe Jeep Grand Cherokee, some of the, that's kind of safe, the Highlander, Hyundai Palisades, one of those.

I just think this car is underrated. You know, it's got a beautiful interior, it drives really nice. Yeah, the interior to me is what sets it apart from some of the other variations. Yeah, I mean, they redesigned this, folks. If you're thinking, oh, that's not the Pathfinder. Wasn't that cool? Well, wait a minute. You haven't seen this Pathfinder. They redesigned it a couple of years ago, and it's night and day. Totally different.

And it is one of the top-selling cars in the U.S., and it really is a nice vehicle. It's got all kinds of safety things. Nissan, their safety suite of stuff is called Safety Shield 360. And they have ProPilot Assist, which is what the SV, the Rock Crane, the upper grades have, and ProPilot Assist with NavLink, which is what the SL and the Platinum versions have. That gives steering assist and intelligent cruise control to help you drive. It's not like a super cruise with GM, but it's close.

It's better. It'll drive. It'll keep you in the middle of the lane and it'll help you drive a little bit. What are you thinking? If you have the means, I think the Platinum is the trim to go with. It's just really nice, luxurious. It still gets all the safety features that all the other models have, and it still has all the off-road capabilities, but it's really nice inside. You go with the captain's chairs in the back, and you make everyone happy riding in that car.

Yeah, you can even get this thing that you do the right model and everything else. You can tow 6,000 pounds. It's got intelligent four-wheel drive, and it's really neat. With the off-road tires, and it's lifted, and it's all out of the shop. And I like that it has four-wheel drive capability, all-wheel drive capability, and in the lower trim, it's front-wheel drive with four-wheel drive. So, in the city, it drives really nice with the front-wheel drive.

Yeah, it does. I mean, it is really—like I said, it's a really nice vehicle. And, folks—. If you're looking at one of those other vehicles we talked about, you need to stop and say, hang on, let me at least go to the Nissan dealer and take a look. At least go look, because it's going to blow you away. I mean, it is really a nice vehicle. And I know my friend Steve Parrott, his granddaughter Goldie loves this model. And this is her favorite model.

And I think it's, you know, and I think you can get way over 20 miles per gallon on this. I think it's so they can get 21 to 23 combined. And it's really nice. But like I said, they've been around forever. It runs good. It drives good. They have all the different models if you want. If you haven't gone to your Nissan dealer, you need to go because there are deals to be had right now. Now's a good time to buy a car because the deals are there and the interest rates are coming down just a tad.

And there's some incentives and things like that. So this is a good car to get. Now, the cousin of it would be the Infiniti QX60. And it's a nice vehicle. To be honest with you, I don't think it's any nicer than this one. I'd rather have this one than the Infiniti, personally. Yeah, I think this one kind of has a little bit more of a sleeper car. Yeah. It doesn't look as nice as it is, where I hate to say that, but the Infiniti is really flashy.

Yeah, in a way, yeah, but this thing is really, this one's sleeper. You're right. It is really a nice car. I mean, it's nice. So if you have a chance, go to your Nissan dealer and check them out. All right, real quick, let's do a car question. What do you think? Yeah, I got one for you. James... Is asking us what's the best 80s, 90s, or 2000s F-150 to own. He wants a cool classic daily driver and has a chance to get a deal on a 99 Extra Crab, which is 10th generation, if you can believe it.

He's asking if they're good or is the 9th gen better? I think the 9th gen is better because the 10th gen is kind of the one with the rounded fenders and it's kind of a smaller truck. The other ones are more boxy. And to be honest with you, I didn't, I wasn't a fan of these models, but they drove good and they were good. I just didn't like the looks of them, but I liked the ones before that. I think I love, you know, the big square, big tall hood, you know, that kind of stuff. I like that a lot.

Yeah. It really depends what his budget is and what he's looking for. I mean, he wants to daily drive it. So you're going to get a little bit more creature comfort, creature comforts on the newer gen ones. Yeah. You know, that 90s square body, you know, I love the square body four-door, you know, lifted big truck, but even the two-door shortbed looks great. On the other side of the spectrum, you can go two-door SVT in the early 2000s. Great truck. Oh, yeah. The four-liter with the supercharger.

That's the 10th generation one, yeah. That's the 10th gen. Yeah. So it just depends where your budget's at and what you're looking to do.

Yep. All right. There you go, guys. there's your answer all right coming up we're going to talk about some classic car stuff and coming up next so hang on for more let's talk i hope you're enjoying the show and i hope you get a chance if if you uh if you like this be sure to tune in again if you missed part of it you can always go to the podcast and find out any podcast platforms that's around here we put it's up on six or eight

of them and just look for let's talk wheels but we would just either that or. Music.

Welcome back to let's talk wheels i'm mike herzing and he's jeremy bierenbaum we're here to talk about some classic cars and hey what jeremy i was looking on auto evolution.com uh one of their sites the other day and there was a story about a um 1993 it's a it's a used car dealer has a has a z20 1993 z28 and it's only got 16 miles on it 16 16 now i think they're driven it around a little bit and probably got about 40 miles on it now but and this was a indie pace car and man what do

you think it's got lt1 275 horsepower so we get these we get these pace cars quite often through the years a lot of time they're corvettes there have been some camaros in the past and they usually you know commemorate some sort of race and this is not Not this exact car, but one that's kitted out just like this will be, you know, the honorary pace car for the race. Some people really like it. Some people only collect these pace cars.

You know, it goes for a certain person. For the most part, they're just a commemorative edition. There's not really much. It's just a sticker and a couple little edges. There's not much different. There might be a paint scheme. I was going to say it's the color scheme. there might be an interior change that you won't be able to get on any other vehicle of that same model but. You know, you have to have a thing for that. I really like the paint scheme

on this one specific car. I think it's really cool. It's a good looking car, even without the, you could peel off the official pace car stuff on the door. And it's, I'd love the color scheme, period. Don't you? Yeah. And the Z28s are kind of rare in this, you know, in the early 90s. The performance wise wasn't great from the factory, but you could unlock a lot of potential from the LT1. It was a 5.7 liter. So you see these cars hopped up quite often,

and they're great to drive. They're pretty bulletproof. You know, they're asking a lot of money for a car with 16 miles, and I totally understand that. For some people, they think they're getting a brand new car. For others, they think, you know, what are the headaches involved with getting a car that hasn't been driven at all, hasn't been exercised, and, you know, you don't know what went into the maintenance of it. You're getting a little bit of a question mark.

Well, you know, you're liable to have rust in the cooling system. You're liable to have, you're going to have to put in all new hoses and all new belts and maybe break. I mean, it's 32 years old, man. The tires, I wouldn't even drive them. I wouldn't drive them over about 20 miles an hour. You know what? Yeah. And it's an interesting thing with the tires. A lot of people with a car like this, they'll go to change for new tires and they'll say, I want to keep the old tires.

And it always scratches my head because when they go to sell the car, they say, and I have the original tires. And it's like, what does that matter? You're just giving me a headache. It's extra on shipping. Now, where am I going to store them? What value do they add? I don't understand it. Drain the original oil and put it in. Here's the original oil. Honestly, that's the same thing as, you know, an old tire. So I don't get it, but some people do it.

It's a cool car. You really have to, if you're looking for one of these, you're kind of handcuffed to the low mileage when you end up purchasing it, right? You can't buy it. And then some people say, I'll buy it and drive it. But the reality is the value that you paid goes down per mile. You could have bought one with 10,000 miles and not had as much stress. Well, there's two or three of them on eBay that are just like this, that have 10, one of them is like 16,000.

One of them is like 20-something thousand, and they're significantly less. But, you know, if it was me, I would be, if I was a dealer or something, and I had a couple of Chevy stores, I'd buy it. Put it on the showroom floor. You know, as a piece, but as far as driving it, oh, man. This goes to a collector or an investor, someone who's got a lot of cars, wants to show it off. But the reality is, if you put miles on it, you're losing value, in my opinion.

Oh, you lose a lot of value, you know. It's like, so folks, Mike Kersing and Jeremy Berenbaum were talking about a 93 Camaro that they found that has true barn find that the guy drove it home from the dealer, had 16 miles on it, and he parked it and never drove it again. It's 32 years later. And it looks brand new. I mean, look at the pictures of it. It's still got the plastic on the seats. You know, the little plastic covers on them? Yeah. I mean, can you imagine all that?

I mean, it's been kept inside, but it's got it's a z28 i mean power windows power locks mirror bose a bose music system fog lights and even air conditioning say that's the other thing the air conditioning system all the seals will be bad in the compressor as soon as you use it turn it on it'll blow the seals out and have to replace the compressor i mean there's just so many things that you got to do to this and you know what

i'm looking at one of the pictures and it looks like it has some damage to the fender. And in my opinion, that thoroughly hurts the value of the car because you could have cars with 5,000 miles original paint that are going to be more original than this once you fix that fender. Yeah. I mean, they've got 60 something photos on this thing. You can see every single corner of this thing.

But boy, it's a beautiful sticker on that. I mean, I know people, I've got a friend of mine who was part owner of a Honda dealer here outside of Houston, And, you know, he had a, he had a, like a 68 or 69 Camaro convertible that was a Indy five. It was a, it may have been a Daytona or an Indy. I think it was an Indy pace car. You know, GM is really big on pace cars. You know, they really have. They're the only ones, I think. Yeah,

there's a few other ones, but... No, no, no, I think Dodge has some. But yeah, there's more, there are more gems than anything else. So... And they're worth something. I mean, people are, I mean, it's, it's kind of cool. With a car like this, I don't think it's flying off the shelf really quickly. This is something you get a PPI for and you really do your homework and you check out the car in person because it's for sale right now on eBay.

You know just look up 1993 camaro z28 when i unfortunately when i see something for sale on ebay i know the price is negotiable because at this point they would sell it somewhere else if they could of course but they're also if you look at that i mean somebody looking at ebay you might they might be in abu dhabi or they might be in michigan or they might be in california you know what i mean as a matter of fact i have a question if you bought this if you

went and bought this thing and you brought it home and you wanted to drive it do you have to get it smogged yeah 1990 for sure oh i wonder if it would pass yeah that's a worry because it's been sitting so long you know is the emission system good you know they're also like with with later model cars i'm not totally up on this but with later model cars they were built where some were sent for 49 state and and they weren't california smog compliant so that's something you have

to check into because i've heard of people buying cars that get to get them and they don't realize that. And then later on, after they purchased the car, shipped it, they can't get it smogged in California and can't register it. Well, you know, it's funny. I worked on cars like Mike Herzing and Jeremy Berenbaum were having a conversation about Let's Talk Wheels, having a conversation about older cars. And I remember forever having a 49 state car.

It was one emission system for California and another emission system for the rest of the country. And it was a pain in the butt when we had a California car in here in Texas because the dealer wouldn't stock the parts. And they'd be a little bit different as far as emissions. Extra hoses, extra stuff, because it was a little bit more, a lot stricter. You know what I mean? So it makes a big difference. That's always the worry or gamble when you buy an out-of-state car bringing it to California.

In California, you're supposed to smog it before you sell it. So that the new buyer knows they're, you know, getting... The People's Republic of California. Oh, come on, man. That's terrible. They should give you a Jeremy Berenbaum pass and say, oh, you're Jeremy Berenbaum. You can drive whatever you want. Hey. No problem. I have a friend. We got an extra couple seconds. I have a friend that had... Cars in Europe that he made his own plate that said Republic of Chelsea.

His name was Chelsea. And he told people that's where his cars were from. He drove through Europe for years, never got a ticket. Now that's funny. Typical ride. All right. We're going to continue some classic car talk in just a second. And I'm Mike Herzing and he's Jeremy Berenbaum, the California kid right there. And, boy, it's a whole different bag of worms when they're on the left coast.

I'll tell you what. It's tough. Music. Let's Talk Wheels. Welcome back to Let's Talk Wheels. Folks, Mike Herzing and Jeremy Bierenbaum. We're having a good time today. All right. We've got some of these real quick let's mention some under $25,000 classic cars that people can actually drive, Jeremy what do you think?

I like the Ford Mustang I think there's a lot of value in a lot of these Mustangs where you get into it, add some value have a good time and then sell it for around the same price under $25k you can even get an early, 2000s Cobra for that price range. You think? Yeah. I mean, because they're pretty nice.

They're nice cars, you know, but there are several other, I mean, because not everybody has, you know, $50,000 to go buy on a classic car that you're not going to drive, except maybe on date night or weekends and this kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? You can get Volkswagen, easy to find cars under that $25,000 budget where you can add. I like to find cars that I can add value to over the time that I've owned them. I think you're the same way, Mike.

Sure. Over the time that you own them, you do a little work and then you're not going to lose anything. You might make a little bit, but we're doing it for the enjoyment, not for the dollar. You know, in the Volkswagen world, at least parts are cheap, easy to come by. There's a lot of information to fix cars and they're pretty easy to fix. You know, you've got your rabbits and things, beetles and your buses, all within that $25,000 price category.

El Camino's Chevrolet. For some reason, people don't love El Camino's. You can pick them up pretty relatively cheap. Or the Ranchero. Only when you get into like late 50, early 60, so 59, 60 with the wings in the back of the El Camino, or you're talking about a 396 or a 454 SS car. Are we talking about higher numbers? But in that $25,000 category, you can do it. another one you know Chevrolet Bel Air 210 or a Chevrolet 210 not a Bel Air but,

Okay, what's the 210? The 210 is the one with the post. Ah, okay, got it. That's making sense. When you open the door, there's- It's called the 210. All right, got it. It's got the doorpost. So yeah, that kind of ruins the car. That drops the price by $5,000. By $5,000, but it puts you in that bracket. And you know what? If you're going for something with that more hot rod look, that's what the hot rodders used really, was the 210s, not the Bel Airs. Oh, yeah.

But you know, just like a C4 Corvette, or even a C5 Corvette. You can get both those in that same price range. Great cars for the money. You get a C5, which is, you know, 99, 2000, 2001, 2003, something like that. Those C5 Corvettes, you can get a convertible with 50,000 miles on it for $18,000. And that'd be a beautiful car. I mean, it's a beautiful car. And they drive good. See, C4 Corvettes are really nice too, don't get me wrong. But the C5 drove better.

It was more comfortable. It was quieter.

About better fuel economy it was just a much better car up until the c7 they get better and then in my opinion they get worse than looks but in better in comfort all the way oh yeah year after year uh c5 i think is the sweet spot in the corvette c6 if you can stretch it but at 25 000 you're going to get one a little bit more high mileage yeah you can have a beat up a little bit but i mean you could get a c5 that's just a beautiful car and those are just i mean i mean you get these cars

you you'll see a 2000 model or something or 2001 and and you're thinking wait a minute this is you know 24 it's it's you know it's 24 years old and it's got 40 000 miles and it's like brand new you know what i mean yeah people drive these things low mileage cars that people drive on weekends they don't drive them for uber they don't use you know use them for delivering stuff i mean these are just these are fun weekend yeah smile on your face cars,

Even the guys that say, oh, I drove it a lot, but only on weekends, they only end up accumulating 10,000 miles on the C5 at this point. Yeah. If you want to stay in the classic world, you can get a truck for under 25K and a 50s truck. 50s cars right now are kind of- A bargain. Yeah, they're taking a little bit of a hit. And so you can get some of these ones that were, you know, in the 40s and 30s, now kind of creeping down into the 25 range with a lot of cars, you know, even like a Chevelle.

Yeah, but you can also get a better deal on the Pontiac and the Buick, you know, Buick Grand Sport and those kind of vehicles. The hard one are the classic Mustangs that aren't coupes. If you want a coupe, you can get it under 25K, no problem. If you want a fastback or a convertible, you got to stretch a little bit. Or otherwise you're going to find something with problems. Yeah, I mean, it's just when you get to be that old, when you get something from the 60s.

Even the early 70s, it's just going to be rotted out floors that have been fixed and this has been fixed and that's been fixed. And as long as it's been fixed, you're okay. But if it hasn't been fixed, you're not okay, right? The two cars that I gravitate myself towards recently that I find myself looking at used cars are Miatas and Lotus Elises. I think both those cars are really cool. I like small cars, two-seater, you know, very purposeful vehicles. but they're weekend cars.

Miata's tiny, but it's also a great little car. So it's an S2000 Honda. Now those have gone up. The S2000 have gotten, they're going to be easy, 25,000. And these cars, the ones I'm throwing out, are cars that I feel like you can kind of get into and not lose anything while driving them for a bit. And then move them on to the next person and taste another flavor. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm not drawn to cars with no miles on them.

Yeah. No, I want something with some miles. The sweet spot for me in a car that you want to drive is somewhere between 20 and 40,000 miles. If you can find one in there, you'll have little things that you have to do, but you still kind of, especially if you're buying a car made after, you know, 95, you're going to get a car that, or even the early 90s, you're going to get a car that's really solid built and made to go 200.

Well, you know, folks, Mike Kursing and Jeremy Barabama, let's talk wheels. We're talking about classic cars. You know, when they became fuel-injected in the late 80s, or mid to late 80s, everything started moving over fuel injection. What fuel injection does, it puts the precise amount of fuel in a car, what it needs. Not too much and not too little. Carburetors, being a fixed jets and things like that, they throw in X amount of fuel.

And what happens is when the cars are cold and under certain circumstances, it overfuels, puts too much fuel in there. They run rich. And that's at low speeds, especially. And when the engines are cold, they run rich. Okay, that's all right. But what happens is when they run too much fuel in there, it washes the oil off the cylinders. So you have engine, premature engine wear. And so you also get fuel dilution in the oil. So the engines don't hold up.

So when they put fuel injection on cars, all of a sudden the car that would ran 100,000 miles without being worn out is now going to go 200,000 miles without being worn out. And that's huge. That's on the wear side. And then the drivability side, you get a car that's so much easier to start, so much more reliable day in and day out to park it for two months and come back to it and not have, you know, in California, we have terrible gas.

And so you let it sit for even half a year, you end up having fuel issues in a carburetor. Yes, I know. I'm having that trouble with my dirt bikes and stuff like that that I don't ride enough. i've got 14 different vehicles now 16 different vehicles at the lake that i have. A, charge, keep the batteries charged and keep the fuel up and put additives in there. You know, additives or race gas or something just to, you know.

I can buy fuel here that's non-ethanol fuel up in the East Texas in the country. Now, as long as you're not buying a major city, I can buy that fuel. But it's not cheap. It's like 50 cents a gallon more than regular. Yeah, but it's worth it to avoid some of the issues you get with the junkier gas. Still, it's about $3 a gallon versus about $2.30 a gallon. I'll take $3 a gallon all day. Jeremy, we're glad you're safe, and we hope everything works out.

All right, folks, if you enjoyed the show, please tune into the same station next week for the following episode. And if you missed part of the show, you can always catch the podcast on all the major podcast platforms. Just added a few more of them this week. And just look for Let's Talk Wheels.

The podcast contains this show and a bonus segment with an extra car review so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out and if you have any topics you want us to cover or questions you need us to answer email mike at letstalkwheels.com we'll always respond we'd love to hear your car questions as always folks on behalf of jeremy berenbaum matt perrault and myself thank you for joining us today on the let's talk wheels radio network and the talk media radio network i'm Mike Herzing.

He's Jeremy Berenbaum. Have a great week and stay safe. Stay tuned for our car review from our reporter, Matt Prahl. We'll be right here. Coming up next.

Thanks for joining us on another edition of Let's Talk Wheels. Let's Talk Wheels. Music.

All right guys this week i was driving a 2024 hyundai kona n line all-wheel drive trim level here this week all right this is one of the first times i've sat in a vehicle and i'm a big fan of hyundai's couldn't figure out what was going on now you can tell this vehicle was initially designed as a fully electric vehicle but this is not a fully electric vehicle it kind of plays tricks with your mind because you get in the console, the minimalist console of it.

When you sit down in the vehicle, you're like, okay, it's electric, but then you hit the gas and it's fully gas and it's not an electric. So you want that push. Like when a vehicle is this light, when a vehicle has this type of, you know, you're looking for the torque. When you sit down, you push the gas pedal, you think you're going to get a very quick response, not a gas lag response. And that's what this vehicle has. So initially when I first sat down and I first

started to drive the vehicle, I was confused. I was like, huh. Like this thing should be electric, but it's not, it's not electric. This is a front wheel drive vehicle, a 1.6 liter turbocharged engine. Eight speed automatic transmission. It's, a smooth ride. There's no debating it. It's a smooth ride. It's a sharp looking vehicle on the exterior. It's nice. Comes in with a sticker price, just a little bit over $34,000. It's got a couple of bells and whistles, but nothing too out crazy.

But the N-Line, the last time when I drove an N-Line Hyundai, it was a sport designed vehicle. Like you saw the N-Line trim level.

You saw it in, you know it was on the seats and it was around the steering wheel and just it had something you knew you were driving something different you knew you were driving something that was going to be high performance not this vehicle it wasn't high performance but it wasn't what i'd driven in the past they've made some changes to this which i was somewhat surprised when it came to what they're looking to produce here i think they're trying to get after like the first time car buyer.

And I think they're trying to find a way of saying, okay, you can try and do different things with this vehicle, light off-roading with this vehicle if you want. It's got some performance features, but some of the stuff, which was kind of strange to it, that to get the power liftgate, you have to go all the way up to the top trim level. This vehicle did not have a power liftgate. And that's not really that big of a deal.

It has some really nice cargo space in the back, but not the things you would expect here when it comes to a Hyundai and how big the Hyundais are. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are not wireless. You know, they're plugged in. You got to plug in. I don't hate that. It's not the worst thing in the world to have to plug in on these things. But I don't know. I like Hyundai does a lot of stuff with wireless Apple CarPlay and other trim

levels and other vehicles. So I was somewhat disappointed when it came to that.

This was a different type of ride for me i was i had to kept on like checking myself going like this is different like what what are we trying to target here and i think i would recommend if you're looking at a hyundai kona and you're looking at you know the all-wheel drive the end line i would definitely drive it you got to figure out maybe it fits you maybe just didn't fit me and maybe what i like and what i drive you may love it and like

it you may like the minimalist style and you may really find it to be fun you know my view my vehicle did have wireless phone charging in it, which is tremendous. The digital key that it's got, it has a lot of features on it, which is really nice. You've got a, powertrain that I think people will be attracted to, but maybe not what they would have expected in the past. Safety features are always there for Hyundais, right? They're always really safe. Highway driving assist, smart cruise control.

The 12.3 inch digital instrument cluster is really bright and really well done, really put right where you need to be in the eyes. Auto dimming in your rear view mirror, LED lights. You have your proximity key with push button start. And I When it's the summertime, everyone thinks about push-button starts when your car is cold. I think about it when your car is hot. And when your car is hot, that is a huge selling feature to me.

And not every vehicle at this spend at under $35,000 on a sticker price come with this remote start. I love remote start. Powered driver seat with lumbar support, very comfortable. You do have your heated seats. Front and rear USB ports, which I think is something that Hyundai does a really good job with. They had two in the front, a couple in the back, which is really nice for if you have kids in the back and you got to charge their vehicle,

charge their phones and whatnot. So I would definitely get in and look at this thing. On the outside, the wheels, I love the wheels. Like straight up, the wheels are really, really cool. They have these 19-inch N-line alloy wheels that really do pop. It's like, hmm, what is that? Grill is really nice.

Spoiler on the top of the vehicle. it's roomy on the interior on the inside it's it's really fun you know just to kind of sit and have a lot of space to yourself you're not like all over each other it has a front that looks like the grill looks like an electric car i kept on coming back to that going this is electric car right when it was designed for electric but this version was gas you may love it check it out drive it make your own opinion

2024 hyundai kona n line all-wheel drive that's what i drove this week, All right, guys, this week I was driving a 2024 Hyundai Palisades. Now, this came in the Calligraphy Night Edition all-wheel drive trim level. Now, this is the most expensive of the trim levels. It comes in with a sticker of around $55,000, $56,000.

So this is not a cheap SUV. It borders on that word luxury, a luxurious SUV. But I actually think it does warrant calling it a luxurious luxury SUV Because as we know, Hyundai and Kia, you know, the Telluride and the Palisades are very similar, except the Telluride really is meant for more off-roaning. The Palisades is meant for more of your street driving, your on-road type of performance. And it definitely delivers on everything you would expect when you hear that

for an on-road performance SUV, luxury SUV. Now it comes with a standard 24 valve V six. That's powerful, responsive. This is a seven passenger vehicle, three rows, easily seats, seven adults. I mean, it's big. This is a big vehicle. Sticker price is also reflective of that, but this is a vehicle that I think a lot of people when they drive it, I tell people all the time when they come to me, and this is happens literally once a week in Vegas, driving a vehicle,

somebody sees it and they go, hey, what is that? Or do you like that vehicle? And I don't know why it just, because it's a brand new vehicle and oftentimes people don't see it all that often. They'll ask me just my opinion on it. And I always tell them, If you haven't driven a Hyundai or you haven't driven a Kia SUV, you have to do it. You have to just check out all the features you get because it feels like you're driving a $100,000 vehicle when it's only about $55,000, $56,000.

It's not saying that $55,000 or $56,000 is cheap. It's not, okay? But what you get in this vehicle, everything that's standard in this vehicle, the all-wheel drive that's optional. The top ranging calligraphy model is tremendous. There's just a lot of luxury features. It tows up to 5,000 pounds, which is really nice. It can tow a boat. You guys can see the performance in the all-wheel drive because it scoots. Now, it's not the fastest of SUVs. It's not supposed to be, but it gets the job done.

It's really smooth in how it corners and how it drives. The suspension, you feel like you're driving a vehicle much more expensive than you actually are. And I love that. I love the bang for your buck. I love the fact that there is, you know, it's a quiet cabin. It's a big cabin. You've got a ton of realistic features in this vehicle, like the third row, which is a real third row, which I love. Okay. You actually can put people in the back. It's not tiny.

The seats are really comfortable. The power seats are really comfortable, very smooth, easy to design, get your driver set up exactly how you like it. Not hard at all. The 12-inch touchscreen infotainment display with your Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, dash navigation, awesome. Here's the thing. Up to seven USB ports are available in this vehicle. Seven. Now, if you're in a big SUV, you've got a big family. You've got a big family. That means you've got a lot of kids.

With a lot of kids comes the questions of who's going to control the audio, who's going to control the aux, who can charge their cell phone, who can charge their iPad. All seven is awesome. This is exactly what I like. You also have a lot of different things, you know, a lot that you can lock or unlock remote start from your Amazon Alexa and Google Assist. That's pretty cool. You got that. And with a Hyundai, you get everything. You get a powertrain warranty that's 10 years or 100,000 miles.

You get the limited warranty for five years or 60,000 miles, which is awesome. That's what it always, I mean, that's Hyundai's thing, right? It's the best in the business. It's something always people always talk about. It's like, okay, if I'm going to buy this vehicle, what's the warranty? Hyundai's got dating back to when they first came over and tried to differentiate themselves. That's been the go-to here for Hyundai. Standard automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection,

which can be a little bit sticky at times. It can be a little over at times. Lane departure warning and lane keeping assist, which is awesome. Adaptive cruise control with the semi-autonomous driving mode. I don't use those all that often. I haven't really come to trust those, but when I do put them into play, it is nice, especially on longer drives. It is nice to have that and to have it available for you. If you do want it, you get a little tired and you want to let the vehicle kind

of drive itself. so that's nice you know the exterior of the vehicle big big front grille, And kind of like a masculine looking front grill, which I liked. I like the side lights as well. The LED lights on the side, which is really nice. But, you know, the two chairs, captain's chairs, and then the space in between where you can jump into the back. Look, my daughter is a typical kid. She loves riding in the backseat. She loves riding the far, far backseat.

If I got her and her friends, they run right to the third row and it's big enough for them. It's easy to get back there. You don't have to like, you know, cumbersome and jumping over different areas, different, moving the chairs to get back to the third row. It's pretty simplistic. You've got a lot of power things here. It's really stylish. I like the exterior a lot.

I like the interior a lot. I found this vehicle, again, to be one of those vehicles that you need to drive to believe because of how much bang for the buck you get. If you haven't driven one of these before, and you're in the market for a full-size SUV, a seven-seater, these are the things where I tell people when they come to me and say, Matt, what are the vehicles do you love to drive?

Like of all the, you know, in the years of you doing Let's Talk Wheels, what types of vehicles do you love to drive? Whenever I get a Hyundai Palisades, whenever I get a vehicle of this caliber, I am always interested, always excited to drive it because of how much fun I have behind the wheel and just the power of the engine. The ride and all the features, The tech features are awesome. This is one of the best tech in infotainment systems in the business.

And it feels like it when you're driving it. Look, if you want the more off-road type, check out the Kia Telluride. Okay, the guts are very similar. They call this thing a midsize SUV, but come on now. I mean, I know the full sides are gigantic, but if you have a big family, this thing is plenty big. Check it out. the 2024 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Night Edition All-Wheel Drive is what I drove this week.