Revving Up: Dodge's Comeback and Honda's Recall

Music. Performance comes back and its name is Dodge. Honda's got some driveshaft problems.

They're going to ask you to bring them back. And we've got some tips to keep your turbocharger alive. You're going to be good. I've also answered a bunch of your car questions today and looking at the popular Mitsubishi Outlander. I was surprised. I really was. So buckle up for an informative and fun day. Welcome to your favorite auto show, Let's Talk Wheels. I'm Mike Erzing.

And every week, we bring you automotive and power sports news, interviews, car reviews, and of course, classic car updates from my co-host, Mr. Classic Car, Jeremy Bierenbaum, based right there in Southern California, where everything is happening. Come on in, Mr. B. Hey, hey, hey, what's going on? Oh, I don't know. You don't have a smile on your face. What's the matter? You had a tough day? No, no, no. I'm a little old. Uh-huh, it snuck out. Yeah, you know.

I went to two car shows last week. I went to two really cool car shows last week. and something kind of cracked me up. One of them I wanted to go to because one of the dealerships was bringing a GT3 RS Manthe edition. The Manthe edition is hopped up performance car through mostly suspension upgrades. And in order to show off the car, they jacked it up, they took off the wheels in the parking lot of the car show, which is in a community college at our house.

It was kind of cool. And they had it on basically an alignment rack so that it was holding up the car and you could see all the suspension, all the brake upgrades that you get with the kit. But I got to the show a little late and they were taking the car off the kit, putting the tires back on, getting ready to take it back to the dealership. And I was watching them take the car down using a floor jack. And I looked at the floor jack and $500,000 car.

They're using a Harbor Freight two and a half ton little dinky floor jack. And part of me had to laugh. And then the other part of me is like, see all these companies that push that you need to buy their expensive ass tools. Excuse my French. You know, but at the end of the day, you got these dealers, you got these people that are working with, you know, half a million dollar car and they're using these tools because they trust it. They, you know. I know.

It's, it's, it's changing in that world because I've, I've always used to buy a Walker jack. I would not buy the Chinese jacks. I didn't have them in the sixties and seventies. I had to buy the expensive stuff. You know, I remember paying $400 for a jack back in, you know, in the late 70s, and I'm like, that's a $400. Well, I mean, that was a cheap one. Yeah. Some of these jacks that were used at the dealership were $1,000, but they were American steel and iron, and they lasted forever.

You could rebuild them and do all those things. But then an $80 jack came in. Yeah.

You know, there's something said about some of these well-made jacks when it's your profession you're using them every day right for you you know the at-home guy that's working on their car they don't need that that stuff's great you know i was at northern tool yesterday getting some goodies so you know northern tool i think it's a it's maybe a step above harbor freight but you know they're all pretty good harbor freight's gotten a lot better all the people used to laugh

about adam are now not laughing anymore they've yeah definitely it's been some nice stuff lifetime guaranteed stuff so uh anyways i've sidetracked us three minutes in yes we did sorry so let's talk about dodge and srt let's get started the news and notes segment and dodge and srt guy i knew they'd come back you know what they they dropped srt a couple years ago and what do you think about that i think it all has to do with tim

koniscus coming back oh of course 100 and i think the first model that we'll see an srt product come out of is ram because that's where Tim is running right now and I think he announced that Ram is SRT. That's the first. New product we'll see from the SRT brand, but you have to assume that they're going to go through Dodge and Jeep as well and put their little sticky fingers on everything and their performance touches and everyone's going to be happy, right? I think it's a win-win.

It's a very nice setup. SRT with some great products. It came out with the Hellcat and all that other stuff. I know that that Dodge Daytona that was going to be going to be the Charger Daytona, which is going to be an electric car only. And then all of a sudden, well, maybe an electric car only. But now all of a sudden they're saying, OK, we're going to build a bunch of them with Emmys on them.

And of course they are. Of course they are. And you make that car a hybrid and it is going to scream down the road. Yeah. You know, it's funny. As a Hemi, it's not even the greatest engine around. It's not. It's good. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, so is the Chevy LS and so is the Ford Coyote. It's just, you know, it's just a different all good. It's a different flavor. You like vanilla ice cream. I like chocolate. But at the end of the day, it's still ice cream.

Absolutely. All right. By the way, folks, if you just tuned in, Mike Erzing, Jeremy Berenbaum.

Let's talk wheels. We're just talking about SRT. Now, we've got a Honda Recall. So welcome back, SRT. We love you guys. We've got a Honda recall for a failing drive shaft. Yeah, you know, and this is an interesting one. 65,000 cars. It's not a ton. The cars that are being recalled are in Alyssa states, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri.

It's the Rust Belt. There you go. Thanks for stopping me. It's the Rust Belt. You know, so I don't, I don't put this issue like solely on Honda. It's definitely caused by environmentals as well. Who ever built their driveshafts for them? You know, and yeah, the road salt and all the contaminants eat driveshafts, eat the whole car. Those cars just fall down to nothing. I had a, we had a car that a guy's had a thing a couple of years ago. His uncle gave him a Bronco, an old school Bronco.

It was like a 95 Bronco. It really didn't look too bad. We put it up on the lift. Man, those cars just eat up the salt. It was about to break in two. We were afraid. We freaked out and had to just let it down real carefully. Had to put straps on it and all that. Honest to God, the frame was about to fall in two, rush in two. It was okay. We can't. It was terrible. But the kid drove it home. I'm like, you hit a bump. You're liable to lose half the car.

Like the Blues Brothers when they pulled up, you know, to the tax assessor collector and the car fell apart. You know, they slammed the door. Yeah, exactly. Like the Bluesmobile, it's going to be falling apart. It was terrible. You know, they just. What? They didn't have the rust protection. These vehicles, the effective models are 2013 Accords. So even then, they don't have the rust protection that they do today. Now you get a brand new car, you look under it, all the parts and pieces look

like they're powder coated. They're nice, slick black. And you go to touch them and it's like a chemical oil that's there to protect the metal. Yeah, I mean, they've got everything. It's got some great stuff. And so, yeah, so if you've got one of these. 65,000 of these 2013 Accords with the four-cylinder engines and the CVT transmission, call your Honda dealer. They're going to replace your driveshafts for you if you need them.

It's kind of cool. Yeah, definitely. I would check the NHTSA website, type in your VIN. It'll tell you if your car's affected and go from there. Yeah, nhtsc.dot.gov. You can actually just call your Honda dealer and say, hey, this is my VIN number, which is on your insurance card, are also all over on your car and it's on your title and all your paperwork. And we will give them that VIN number and they will find out if your car has a problem.

And then they'll schedule it all up. It's really easy, painless. You know, recalls are something that people don't realize that if you've got a recall, you want to sell your car, there's the potential liability. You need to get the recall fixed. Oh, definitely. You know, if you trade your car in, the dealer can't sell it until they fix the recalls. You know, so you might even think that if you take care of it at the beginning,

you might even get a rental car out of it for the day, which is always nice. You know what? You know, if they've got them around, they usually don't mind giving to you. Coming up on Let's Talk Wheels, we're going to review the Mitsubishi Outlander. We're going to answer a lot of your car question that you mail to Mike at Let's Talk Wheels dot com. And we're just going to impart some knowledge this week. It can be a good one.

All right. All this coming up on today's Let's Talk Wheels. Be right back. Music. Welcome back to Let's Talk Wheels, Mike Herzing and Jeremy Berenbaum. All right, this is our car review segment. And this week, I'm going to talk about the 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander. Now, this is, you know, the kind of the cousin of the Nissan Rogue. They share some goodies and parts and design and things like that, you know, because Mitsubishi and Nissan are kind of married there, their cousins.

This is the big three-row SUV. Have you seen them, Jeremy? They look awesome. Yeah, I've redesigned them last year. I've seen a few on the road. I was actually uncertain at first how many vehicles Mitsubishi still sold in the U.S., but they got a few still. Yeah, and actually, they're coming back. And somebody's saying Mitsubishi may even build some new trucks, some trucks again. I used to love the Mitsubishi trucks or the Monteros.

They were all great. What was that little four-door hatch they had that competed with the Subaru? I'm blanking on it. The Evo. I love that. Oh, yeah. The Lancer Evo? Of course. I can't believe the Lancer. There you go. I can't believe they discontinued those. Or the Eclipse? Yeah. It's like, hey, let's get the Montero. Let's get the Eclipse. Let's get the Lancer and all those Evo. Let's get those. And let's just quit building them.

Ah. They changed all the management in that company. So either way, so the advantages of this vehicle is it's a nice six-seat SUV. It rides very good. It has got an unbelievably nice interior. It's got a great warranty. It really is. I mean, it's this, you know, the third row seats kind of like for younger people or an emergency type thing. Does it still have a live rear axle then? Or is it independent? You know, I didn't even look underneath it.

I didn't. I'll look while we're shouting. But I know that the hybrid is their most popular model. The only thing is it's got this little four-cylinder with a CBT transmission. And just like the Rogue, it's not real fast. It's pretty slow off the line. And once you're on the freeway and you're rolling along, you know, 20, 30, 40 miles an hour on the streets, you know, getting up there to get up on the freeway at 55, 65, you know, it does okay at higher speeds.

But it's the zero to 40 miles an hour. It's pretty slow taking off. That's the only thing I wish they had because the interior is so nice. It's got heated and cooled seats. It's got really nice cup holders. It's got a really nice screen. It's just, it's really nice. Was the model that you had just the Outlander or did you have the plug-in hybrid? I did not get the hybrid. Okay. So that's, that I think is the one that, that they're selling like crazy.

Yeah. I would assume that one's got a decent amount more pickup off the line. Yeah, of course. That electric hybrid will make all the difference in the world. But one thing I can tell you, I'm cruising along and I'm looking at, you know, oh, it's rated at 30 miles per gallon on the highway. I look down, I'm getting 29. That's not bad. And I'm going, you know, 80 miles an hour. Yeah, a big car with four people in it, you know, and gear and stuff like that.

But, you know, if people are looking for this or looking at maybe a Volkswagen Tiguan or Kia Sorento or maybe even maybe the Honda Passport, you know, something like that. I think anything in the Hyundai, what's the one step above the Tucson is the Santa Fe. Yeah, I think this is comparable. And the interior looks very similar to what the design language that Hyundai and Kia have been doing.

Right. You know, this thing is, the model I had was loaded with every single thing you could get, including the camera review mirror. It has all of the Nissan safety suites and things like that, the Mitsubishi safety stuff, the adaptive cruise control, and it keeps you in the lane, and it does all these wonderful things, and it mags you when you do stupid things.

Very handy stuff. and but the base price on these things start and it's pretty good size a little under under thirty thousand dollars and they go up to about the almost mid-forties okay the one that i had was actually when you figure it was this 38 000 was the base price on it and this is an all-wheel drive with uh you know the torque vectoring things like that so it's you can do a little off-roadish off-roading on it you can also it's got

skid plates and some other things to help you that with that it's not made for off-roading but you can do it occasionally it's got the nice roof rails you can have the stuff but drives good great on the highway it's quiet inside looks amazing. And it stickers with destination handling and the whole bit all the kinds of extra audio systems and upgraded and all that stuff is $45,000 and change.

And that includes a $3,050 Yamaha audio system and synthetic, real pretty leather interiors, the quilted door panels and the quilted seats and things like that. The 10.8 inch heads up display and the big screen, all that stuff. And also don't forget, this has a 10 year, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty and a five-year 50,000 bumper-to-bumper. You can't beat that. You can't beat that. You literally drive it for 10 years. Yeah, and, you know, the engine, transmission, differential,

all the expensive stuff, that's all taken care of. And especially at that price point we're talking about. Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, because you can start, you can get this lower. They also make the Outback Sport, which is a little bit smaller than this, and it's dramatically cheaper. But, I mean, this thing is very nice. It's got the side, you know, five-star crash ratings, and overall rating is four. I said the warranty just blew me away, and this made in Japan. Yeah, it's a great car.

I've had two friends actually go out and buy them after I showed it to them, and they both absolutely adore these things. So I'm very happy with it. Check out the V. Yeah, have you been in one? I have not been in one. I'm just coming off of what you're saying. I've been looking at the photos. I've seen them on the road. But you can't beat it for the price and the warranty. Those two things alone, this car is a great-looking car. You literally— Yeah, I'm kidding. You can't lose.

You can't lose so here's here's ram giving this you know putting a big long warranty on it and here's mitsubishi doing that i don't know when they did it i guess it was a year or two ago but man great idea what your money of your mouth is it worked for hyundai and kia exactly all right genesis all right i got a question for you you do it's so hot right now it's it's hot in texas it's hot in california jenny wants to know about mike's secret trick to cooling down a hot car,

Well, it wasn't a secret magical trick, but it is kind of a kind of neat thing to do. You know, when you get in these cars and they've been sitting outside, unless it's got some of this new ceramic coating, you know, the tent, it's so hot inside. I mean, it gets into the steering wheel could be 190, 200 degrees. The dash, your black dash is going to be, you know, 190, 200, 210 degrees. I mean, think about that. That's like boiling water, guys.

And so when you think about it, you jump into your car at lunchtime, steering wheel is so hot, the dash is so hot. Now, if you're smart, you put one of those goofy sunshades on there, that drops at about 30 degrees. That's what I do. Yep. And then also, it also keeps the sun from damaging the top of your steering wheel, also your dash bad. So that'll help there.

What you need to do is first thing you get in, roll down the windows on the passenger side, and then just take the door, the driver's door, and open and shut it. Leave your window up and then open and shut the door. You're pumping air across your car. It'll go out one of the back windows, you know, the side windows on the passenger side. All right, guys, coming up, we've got some more tips for getting ready for a summer road trip. We're going to talk about some stuff we talked about last week.

I got a bunch of emails and they said, please do it again. So we're going to do it again. So hang on. Music.

Welcome back to let's talk wheels mike herzing and jeremy berenbaum folks you know last week when we were talking about trips and things like that we kind of rushed through it and people i got you know probably 16 17 emails and stuff on the on the facebook page about asking about more, it's all maintenance guys you're going to go on a trip it's real funny when i owned my shop everybody that was going to go on a trip somebody would come to me and say we're going on a trip in the next two weeks,

and we're going to go over to Michigan or whatever, and we wouldn't have them check the brakes and everything. And I said, you know, it's funny. When you're on the highway, you don't touch the brakes. You know, at least you're not supposed to. And we're thinking, I said, you know, when you take a trip like this, this is when your brakes get used the least. Yeah. Okay? But what about when you're driving to work every week? And I said, be sure to tell you, be sure to have your brakes checked.

Do they do it? Oh, hell no. They wait till they're going on a trip. But I said, you know what? I'll take it. I'm the opposite. I'm trying to get my car, especially if it's under warranty, to the dealer right before I go on a trip so I can get a rental car and not put the miles on my own car. Oh, you sicko. I know. No, I mean, people are always that way. I'm just going to go on a trip. Just maintain your car. You know, and I just thought of it as a win.

If they can get their, you check their brakes and know that, that's all they know of. But it's the cooling system. The main thing when you're taking a trip, you just don't want to break down somewhere where you're not near all your network. Yeah, you got one shop and you're at his beck and will to price and if parts are even available, you know, depending on what kind of car you're driving. If you're a thousand miles away or 500 miles away and your car breaks down, what do you do?

Well, luckily if you have AAA members, they call and get a AAA shop. But still don't know if it's any good or not. It isn't like you can sit there. And I know it's funny. People break down and then they'll, like, my son's got on social media and all their buddies found them. And, you know, at 10 o'clock at night on a Saturday night, they had people on the side of the interstate helping them with their trailer broken, you know, was broken.

But, guys, when you think about stuff, it's so much better off taking care of maintenance and things like that before you go. Definitely.

Take it into a shop. take your vehicle to go over by discount tire and say hey guys would you go ahead and check my tires and make sure there's no cuts or nails or any of the problems with the tread and and go ahead and rotate them and and things like that and then you go that usually will do that we'll do that for free and then you turn around and you go even if you didn't buy tires from there by the way then if

you go the next thing i would do is take go by your regular shop get your brakes checked all the fluids checked by the way do i need to put coolant as a time for a coolant flush the recline for brake fluid flush transmission flush by the way this lady had 70 000 miles on a 2017 x ford expedition she should be you know that's that's god that might even be the 10 speed if not i think it's the six speed it needs to be flushed the coolant needs to be done

all those things you know when you're taking a trip there's a lot less chance of this thing breaking down besides that while the shop is looking at this stuff if they're underneath your the engine i look up and there's a drop of coolant dripping down in their head. Then you go, whoops, you got a coolant leak from somewhere. Let's see where it's from. You can figure that stuff out. Do not do it on the side of the road.

It's so hot. And then you've got, we've got kids that this time, you know, in just a matter of a couple of weeks, we have people said their kids are getting ready to go back to college. Well, they've got it. Here you are. You got to take your car, your kid and your child and they're going to, we're close. That's one thing.

Let's say they're a hundred miles away or 200 miles away, you've got to find a shop they can go to, check with a bunch of the other students in that city, find a shop, find somebody you're comfortable with. Get your kid there. Make sure that you can trust them when something goes wrong. And that's the last, as a recent college person or more recent than you, Mike, that's the last thing that your kid is thinking about when he's at college is, oh, I got to get my car serviced, right?

So the reality is the six or eight months that they're there, the car is not getting serviced. I will argue, though, that in Mike's theory of just doing it before a trip or whatever is a little bit flawed because you get hit sometimes with a big bill because now you're compounding all the things that you should have. You should be doing it all along. So you get hit with all the things you should have been doing all year all at one time.

And some people are fine. They just like to bite the bullet or pull the Band-Aid and just pay one check and be done with it. I prefer to stagger all my maintenances, and it makes it tough. I keep a little book, but at least when you do that, you're not forking out, you know, thousands of dollars at a time. It's usually hundreds of dollars at a time. Yeah. I mean, your shop will tell you, okay, this, if you don't do this, it's going to cost you a lot of money, a lot more.

Now, a coolant flush, you can probably hold off until six months from now or whatever. And probably in another six months, you're going to need these shocks or whatever. But right now, this is where we're here. So I need my good, better, best scenario. If I could take care of it, lots of money, what would I do? If I just don't have quite so much money, what would I do? If I just got to get something to get me by, what's going to get me by?

And that's where going to a shop that you trust and that you frequent, you're going to get the right answer because this person knows that you're a constant customer.

I was going to talk about another maintenance thing we kind of touched on a couple weeks ago, but this is in regards to cars with turbocharged engines. By the way, Mike Herzing and Jeremy Berenbaum, Let's Talk Wheels, if you just tuned in, we were just talking about, we're gonna talk about right now, some tips that'll help save, A turbocharger. So people don't always realize the turbocharger, you think your car is running at high RPMs at maybe 5,000 or 7,000 max.

A turbocharger spins at up to 220,000 RPMs. And the only thing that's keeping that thing moving and cool is a thin, thin amount of oil that goes through really small passages. And Mike and I had some tips the other day, but it got me into a little rabbit hole of what you should do if you have a turbocharged engine to keep it running properly. One of the biggest ones is oil contamination. And that's just making sure your oil is regularly changed and you're using the right oil.

Absolutely. The best stuff that you're doing. But there's also little things like, you know, turbochargers get really hot because they use the exhaust flow to turn a paddle wheel, which goes and pushes the pushes of mixture air into the engine. OK, think about that. How can I make a little engine run good? More more air and more fuel. They pack it in there. And that's what's called boost, you know, and it's they said so many pounds of pressure.

Well, that's helped a diesel. That made diesels just go crazy. They're the best. But actually, gas engines, too. I mean, we see these 300-and-something horsepower four-cylinders, 2.7 four-cylinders that GM puts in their pickup trucks, and they work great. Yeah. So turbochargers do so much. Yeah.

You're right. They get so hot. So once you run home, I mean, if I'm, if I'm doing something with my tractor and it's got a turbocharger, it's a diesel or any kind of turbocharger, if I'm working it pretty hard, it's almost glowing red. I mean, it's really hot. So as I go to pull into the barn or whatever, just kind of pull into the refuel or whatever, I let it idle down for a minute or two and I'll let it idle for probably two minutes.

Maybe three minutes till that The turbocharger will cool down, and then I'll turn it off. And that's letting, you know, the oil circulate through the engine, help the radiator cool the engine, which cools the oil, and that cools the turbo, which all takes time. But some people will just shut off that motor with a glowing red turbo, and then you've stopped any oil going into it. And so now it's not cooling. Any oil inside of it is baking, you know, and it turns into— Oh, absolutely.

Same thing with your transmission. Don't forget your transmission is hydraulic. It gets hot. And the power steering, all those items get, the fluid gets hot. And so what happens is when you go zipping around or hauling butter, hauling a trailer, and then you get somewhere and you just turn it right off, not only is the turbocharger glowing and red, but the transmission fluid is hot. And all of a sudden it stops flowing when you turn the engine off. Well, it's baking.

And the opposite of that is, you know, people get in the car when it's cold. And then just go vroom, vroom, vroom and rev up the motor like crazy. And then all of a sudden you have oil that's not properly warmed yet and it's not flowing and it's not providing the proper lubrication. So those are just a couple tips to keeping your turbo running a little bit better.

Yes, and it doesn't at all. It makes a difference. As a general rule, just when you get your car, you walk out, especially on a cold morning, just start it up, let it idle for 30 seconds, 60 seconds. Hey, guys, we lost track of time.

Let's finish this thought in our next segment. Coming up next week. Music. Jeremy Berenbaum. All right, let's finish this thought. Jeremy, we're talking, you know, when you first get in a car, we do just take it really easy. And I know that's one of the disadvantages of these new electronic controlled things and engines and stuff that they just run so good when it's cold. All the older cars are all classics that we love so much. They all run horrible when it's cold. Yeah, oh yeah.

But the new engines. You don't hear it like you do in an old car where you hear the lifters ticking and everything.

Right. I agree, but I still treat my new car like it's an old car i know you're not supposed to let them idle for a long time but especially if with the remote start i'll start it up to two three minutes before i leave in the morning just to let it come up oh yeah that's so much better for it oh it's so much better for it so but and like i said when you get the car gets 300 000 miles and all of a sudden it's not junk it doesn't

rattle it doesn't you know do these things you haven't had a lot of problems you're like well i've gotten this thing pretty trouble free i could tell you five of the exact same models that are not trouble-free, but because you've maintained it, you're enjoying the fruits of that. And maintenance on these cars just is everything. It really is. You spend a lot of money on these cars and you need to protect them. And by protection, I mean maintenance.

And just doing the steps that Mike and I are talking about now. And a lot of people think their car is like a toaster. You just turn it on, do it, and then go.

And that's not really how it works maybe on an electric car uh not not even then they've got a whole different set of problems they got tires tires tires tire problems they eat tires shocks brakes all this kind of stuff they still got to go and stop you know what i mean yeah windshields windshield wipers you know all that kind of stuff is is still there but it really starts with trusting somebody it's like going to a doctor you don't really trust them but you're

going to listen to what they say well wait a minute why go to him if you don't trust i have trust issues and that's why i do all my own repairs and spend all this time so you got to do but there's something you can't do you gotta let go sometimes you gotta gotta go see that plumber every once in a while you gotta go and see that electrician every once in a while you've got to go see your your shop and say what is going to come back and get me next,

You know, I've had a couple of customers that I had for, I mean, I took care of their grandchildren's cars when I was in business because it was over 30 years. Even some people that I worked at the dealership, so we were like 35, 40 years of stuff. They still contact me. I'm like a part of the family. I know that. And so, you know, they go, what should I do next? What should I do? What kind of vehicle? I said, well, I know you. This won't hold up. You need to buy this. You know, something.

But I mean, they just go, what maintenance? I mean, what can I do? And these people will say, you know, I've maintained my car. I've done the best I can. I've had no breakdowns. I've had no failures. The car is still worth a good amount of money. It's not junk. And here it is at 250,000 miles. Well, you know, the general population- Reap the benefits. Yeah, the general population knows their car from, you know,

a one-foot perspective around their car. They don't know the underside and what everything looks like. And you get so much information from just putting your car on a lift and being able to see things that you can't see on a daily basis. And then that's how you kind of start to see what the actual health of your car is. It's not, you know, how good the paint, the chrome. I mean, those are all important for the longevity of your car.

But those are appearance things. You want to look under the hood and on the underside to see what oils are leaking. You know, are your tires wearing properly? There are bushings you can't see until you get under the car. And so those are the little things you want to pay attention to. So there's value in going to that shop that you trust every once in a while. I say, hey, can you put it on the lift and check it out? Yeah, but there's other people who say, well, like it's got an old car.

My daughter's got a 2011 Ford Escape. She loves it. She loves that car. And she goes and we do clay bar on it. She waxes it a couple times a year. We clean the windshield with the special deep cleaning things. And the cars run great. We keep the transmission flushed, the coolant, the brake fluid, all this stuff. She's had to put brakes on it. We put tires on it. But it's had no major failures. You know, and what we've done, we've added maintenance.

But the whole trick is it even looks good. The clear coat's good. It stays in the garage. every chance she gets when she gets home from school. You know, she's a teacher. And so when you think about all that, it's nice to be able to take care of an older vehicle. Then there's people out there with these cars that'll be, you know, 10 years old and they've never waxed them. They never washed them hardly. And the clear coat's gone. It's all chalky.

You know, they rusty. You know, it's just, all of a sudden you look up and it's got, how can one of them be in really great shape and still worth $5,000 and one of them is worth $1,500 and it's going to be a pain in the butt to sell. You know what I mean? And that's what happens when people have these cars that just sit and they don't have a parking spot for them and they sit outside and they don't get the attention.

They just lose value so quickly. And these people that think, oh, yeah, I'm going to do this and that to it. Like every year that you let your car sit out there, you're losing money and you're making your job harder moving forward. So sometimes it's easier to kick that problem to the next person or not that problem, but that project. Let's say it that way. Kick that project to the next person and you're saving yourself and him time and money because it's not sitting out there getting worse.

You're absolutely right. By the way, folks, Mike Herzing and Jeremy Virenbaum, let's talk wheels. We're talking about taking care of your cars. You know, that's it is with classics and things like that. You know, I've got a buddy of mine that lives in a little subdivision a little bit west of me. And it's a kind of a older, older people subdivision. So smaller homes, things like that for people that are empty nesters. And he has a really nice step-side Toyota Tundra.

It's white, extra cab, and it is really in nice shape. And it's a 2004, I think. Okay? Mm-hmm. So, but it's in the perfect shape. But he leaves it outside, but he puts a car cover over it. He may not drive it for another two or three weeks because they've got another car, and then they'll drive this one. But it's in perfect condition. It does not stay inside. It's out in the sun. But with a car cover, it makes all the difference in the world. All those UV rays are not destroying the interior.

They're not tearing up the paint of the clear coat. It's kind of nice. If you ever get a hailstorm or something like that, or you've got angry birds that don't like you, it sure does make vehicles look better outside. Would you agree? Do you ever put car cover on anything? I try not to keep stuff outside. Sometimes you have to. Sometimes you have to. The battle with outside is the UV rays and then mice and rats. For some reason, they just love to eat the electrical.

And yeah, I would say classic cars, but it's not even that. It's new cars. I'm hearing new cars that are basically totaled because a rat's, you know, gone through and chewed up enough important wires. Do you know what it's like to do a new wiring harness in a new car? No, I live out in the, we have a place in the country. Are you kidding? Everybody out there has varmints all under the hood of their vehicles. No one has thought of a good product that is like bulletproof for

getting these animals or keeping them out. Well, I have these ultrasonic things that work really well. And then we also, they plug in. And then also you can use mothballs. My dad has those ultrasonic things in his garage. He can't hear them because his hearing's a little, uh-uh. But for me, I go in there and I'm like, please unplug all these things. I'm trying to work right now. And you shouldn't, then there's something wrong with them. You shouldn't be able to hear it.

Ah, it's my ears. I've got them and they work great, but I got them and they work great and I've used them for years. But they work, they're made for barns and things like that. But we're out in the country, out in 30 acres in the forest. But I can tell you that mothballs do work good for classic cars and boats and RVs and things like that. They make these things. And I put them in a little dish and I just sit them somewhere.

And those vapors will hide, keep everything out. Just put them where they're going to go in. But that's the best thing. So, guys, if you have any questions, you don't even, you know, like, hey, gosh, I would have thought about that.

Drop me an email mike at letstalkwheels.com or go Facebook you know we do social media all the time Facebook, Instagram I kid you not I just got a text while we were talking that said I'm going to look at a mid-90s Range Rover this week can you come with me I don't want to get hosed that's what I do for my friends I do it you know for my not friends Mike and I love doing this sort of thing but if they were a true friend you wouldn't let them buy a Range Rover I'm getting into that next,

Yeah, I wouldn't let them buy a 90s mid-90s Range Rover unless they just got a lot of money just to throw away. You might as well just set money on fire. There you go. It's a terrible thing. All right, folks, if you've enjoyed our show, please tune in next week. And if you missed part of the show, you can cast a podcast on all the major podcast platforms. Just look for Let's Talk Wheels and subscribe. The podcast contains this show and a bonus segment with an extra car review.

Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out. 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 love to hear almost all your car questions. If you enjoyed the episode, take a moment and leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Hang on for a quick car review from our reporter, Matt Burrell. See you next time. Music.

Thanks for joining us on another edition of Let's Talk Wheels. We'll see you next week. All right guys i was driving this week a 2025 mazda cx-5 in the turbo signature trim level now it's important to make note of this because i often have to like correct myself and i or remind myself that this is not a cx-50 okay this vehicle the cx-5 has been around since 2017 2018 It's been around for a while.

They introduced the CX-50, which is bigger than, It has off-roading capability, although it's light off-roading capability, but it's a different vehicle. The CX-5, however, has not been toned down. This vehicle has not taken a step backwards. This vehicle comes in with a price tag of over $42,000. And when you have a top of the line trim level, you need to justify that price tag.

Has Mazda done it? I think they have. this vehicle with a 2.5 turbo, this thing drives exactly how I want a vehicle with an SUV to perform. It does exactly what I like it to do. Over 227 horsepower for this 2.5 liter turbo engine. You've got your six speed sport mode vehicle, which I drive everything in sport mode. I never not drive it in sport mode. So I always get in, drop it in sport mode, see how it goes. It kills the economy a little bit for the fuel, but not tremendously.

This is a, you know, 27, 28 miles per gallon on the highway. You'll get probably, you know, in sport mode, you'll probably get 26. You know, nothing too crazy, but it's super safe. And it's why it's so popular because it performs. It's fun. Mom will like it because it's a five-star safety rating. Dad's going to like it because of what it can do on the road.

When you ask the vehicle to go, it goes. now I had at this turbo signature level you get some really cool features and things are just awesome ventilated disc brakes is huge okay it's safe you have rear solid disc brakes again if you're driving in sport mode brakes gonna be important gotta make sure the vehicle stops this vehicle can definitely do that it does what you ask it to do which is really really nice sport it has an off-road mode

which is what they've added to the cx50 as well I'm not so sure how much I, I didn't test it at all. I really, I don't feel like, I don't feel comfortable. It would go like onto like a dirt road or a gravel road. Fine. It would go into like a field, a grass field. Fine. But I'm not taking this thing into like Red Rock National Park. I'm like expecting this thing to do what other off-roading vehicles will do. Other SUVs would do, but it's there. I mean, it's, it has that drive mode.

It's sport and off-road mode or there. If you guys need them. 19-inch alloy wheels are okay. All-season tires, not really designed for going off-road, but you've got some features there that will be able to handle, again, any light off-roading dirt roads or whatever you might be going down on, which is nice. It seats five, and when you get the upper level, this turbo signature trim level, you're gonna get your Nappa leather trim seats, which are very comfortable and

really, really nice ventilated front seats. you Bravo. More of this, more standard ventilated front seats. Everyone has had heated seats for so long. Ventilated seats tend to only come in these higher trim levels. I hope that it becomes more of a common factor for this because I really do like those ventilated front seats as well as the heated front seats, which is awesome. You have keyless entry, obviously, with the key fob for this vehicle.

You have a 10.2 inch color center display, which is awesome. Very easy to use. That's the thing about Mazda is that their infotainment system is very, very simple. The big knob they put right in the middle of the console. You can do a lot of things. You can easily figure out without having to take your eyes off the road for more than like a second. It's easy to find what you need and to navigate around it, which I love that.

You have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay on this vehicle and you have two USB ports in the front, two USB ports in the back, which is great when you're talking about a vehicle that is going to be your family vehicle. There's gonna be a lot of kids in the car with a lot of devices and charging necessary, you know, using, not fighting over the USB. You've got two kids in the back. You got two different USB ports, which is tremendous.

Two in the front for mom and dad as well, which I love, it's great. So you got that there. I'm a big, big fan of both of those features. From a security standpoint and a safety standpoint, this vehicle gets the job done. Five-star overall safety rating, five-star frontal crash, five-star side crash.

It's a very, very safe vehicle. A lot of different safety features that you would expect on a vehicle with a price tag of over $40,000 with your 360-degree view monitor, your cross-traffic alert, your lane keep assist, your departure warning, your blind spot warning, all things that you would expect to have here for this vehicle. But I really found this to be nice. I prefer the CX50. I'm not going to lie. It's bigger. I think it rides better. I think it's got more.

I'm someone who does want to go off-road in some form or fashion. So I'm looking at this and I'm comparing it almost up to the CX50. And I think I would prefer the CX50, but we're in the same category of like a Hyundai Tucson or a Volkswagen Tiguan or a Honda CR-V. My family's been buying Honda CR-Vs for a very long time, and I've been trying to get them to convert over to a Mazda CX-5 for a while. Definitely worth your time to check it out. A Mazda 2025 CX-5.

I had it in the turbo signature trim level.