The Most Popular Car Colors and Future of EVs

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

What's the most popular color car? How about Carvana? Add it again. Are EVs hot or are they not? This is just a few of our topics today right here on Let's Talk Wheels. Welcome to your favorite auto show. 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-host, the lovely and talented, I'm just kidding, Jeremy Bierenbaum, who's based right there in Southern California.

Bring him on right now. Mr. B, how you doing, buddy? Which one are you kidding about, the lovely or the talented? Nah, you're a good guy. So, how's everything on the left coast? You know what, we got some rain this week, a lot of rain this week, which is good. But, you know, aside from that, can't complain. It was sunny on the weekend last week. Went to a fun car show. You know, dragging after the time change. And now I've started to get back into my routine again.

Yeah, there we go. Same here, you know. But the time change has always been tougher. But I just love having the extra hour in the evening. I mean, it's just... Oh, it's great to get off work and have some sun. Yeah, it is really great. I'm sorry that the kids have to go to school in the dark. But, you know, what they need to do is right after spring break, change the schools to start one hour later. That's an interesting thought.

Then it solves the problem because it's the biggest complaint about everybody. People don't mind going to work in the dark as long as they get to come home in sunshine. That's all right. But we've got a crazy show today. Before we get started, let's get started with a news and notes segment and talk about colors. Okay. What's the most popular color? Some people think it's black. Some people think it's white, but colors can make a big difference in the value on cars.

In the value as well as, you know, the way they look on the street. I sometimes think that some of the colors that a car photographs in best are not always the colors that I find myself being attracted to when you see the car in person. I have so many friends that say, I'll never own anything but a black car. I'm like, oh, man, you drive it 25 feet and it's filthy. A white car, believe it or not, it doesn't show the dirt, you know?

Yeah, black is bottom of the list to me, but, you know, for most people across the world, black is, you know, one of the top choices. Yeah, it's... Yeah, it's like the second most favorite color. You know, white is the most popular by 34%. Black is second with 22%. Gray is 17%. Silver, 8%. You know, blue is 7%. Red is only 4%. I thought red would be a lot more popular. I really did. I think they just stand out when you see them. So you think they are more popular.

Yep. The yellow is up 1.5%. but then brown, beige, and purple are all 1%. I mean, some of these cars look really good, but this new sand color looks like something that the military would use in, you know, the Middle East or something in the desert. Those are the desert camo colors. They look good on trucks and certain SUVs. And some of these colors are really great.

But like you said, when you get these cars that are 15, 20 years old and it's purple or it's yellow or it's something like that, Like the old Chargers that were orange. Remember those? Yeah, definitely. I mean, who would buy an orange Charger? Oh, me. I would love to have one. Man, some of this stuff makes the cars. You know what I mean? Yeah, definitely. And, you know, everyone has their own preferences.

But when you talk about a car on the resale market and you talk about some of these low percentage colors, yellow, brown, beige, purple, those are the ones that end up being more sought after later. One, because there are fewer of them. And two, because if someone wants a purple car, there's a better chance they're going to pay a premium for it because there's a lot less competition out there. Yeah, you know, you're exactly right. I mean, it just colors on cars are just so polarizing.

I would not have to have a gray or silver. I have a silver truck, but I bought it used and it was a deal. But other than that, I would never buy a silver vehicle. I like white. I like kind of a lighter blue, you know. Oh, I like some of these things, but I don't know. I don't have the cojones to have a yellow vehicle, but I know people that do love them. And what looks good yellow in one car doesn't always look good in yellow in another car, you know?

So there's a lot of people that really like, I have to get a blue car. And it's sometimes not the case that it looks good in that case. You know, gray is really creeping up on the list at 17%, and that color has become really popular. Now we're seeing a lot of the, it's not matte, but I'll call it flat. It has no metallic. It's just gray. My sister calls it a blob. Those are super popular right now.

Yeah. I mean, it is. And it just, it makes such a, you know, a yellow Corvette is one thing, you know, a yellow Honda minivan is a total or a yellow Prius. No, it just doesn't work. But a yellow Corvette or a yellow Jeep or a yellow, even the, remember the Ram pickup trucks that were yellow, even some of the Ford Super Duties that had an Amarillo version that was yellow. Yeah. You know, I think of a yellow truck. I automatically think of a city employee car, but that's what we have out here.

Well, you know, they have a pea green that you'll see all of the old, you know, Department of Agriculture type cars, you know, and you're like, what is that? Obviously, that's the Department of Agriculture, you know. And so I know people used to buy those all the time to use cars, but we're going to talk about that. Ford's got a recall on Lincoln Navigators. Yeah. So this is a recall for 2015 to 2017 Lincoln Navigators made from a specific date range only at the Kentucky Assembly Plant.

What's going on is there's puddle lights inside the side mirrors. And that's what, you know, projects like the Lincoln logo down on the ground when you walk up to the car. Yeah, that way you don't step in a big pile of water when you get out of your car in the dark, right? Exactly. And so what's going on is there's some corrosion that's happening with water intruding into the mirror. And instead of the wire shorting out a fuse, it's actually shorting and causing a possible burn.

Ooh, yeah. So if you've got one of these vehicles, you know, then 35,328 and it's Lincoln Navigators made built from January 17, 2014 to June 30th, 2017 at the Kentucky plant. You'll get something from Ford shortly that'll say, hey, bring it in. We want to fix it real quick. And that's kind of nice of them. By the way, folks, Mike Herzig and Jeremy Bierenbaum, this is Let's Talk Wheels. We're talking about some news and the industry news today.

Carvana's back. They're coming back. You know, they were struggling for a while, and it seems like they're doing a little bit better. But they just bought an actual car dealership. They bought a ChryslerDeep Dodge Ram dealer in Arizona. That makes them an actual new car dealer, right? Yeah, definitely. So they're, you know, trying to diversify what they do. They bought a dealership. They are calling it, I think it's Crown. Casa Grande Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram.

There you go. That's the same thing as Crown. That's close enough. But, you know, they had actually, the stock, price stock fell 99%, an all-time high. And it would have been a good thing to buy some Carvana stock, but looks like it's going to take off again and that for 2025, they're starting off pretty darn strong. And that's good for them, right? We need some success stories. That would be nice.

But real quick, let's talk about the police in this is not this is good and not bad and not and bad north carolina they're going to have these new mustang police pursuit packages north carolina speeders i tell you what north carolina state highway patrol they've got mustang gt pursuit vehicles oh that's scary yeah they just purchased 25 of these coyote powered pursuit vehicles we've seen them before Or in the Fox Body Fords. Yeah. Texas used to use them, man. They were five-speed manuals.

You know, a 302 V8, Fox Body Mustang, they were great. Yeah. You know, these are meant to catch dedicated speeders. You're not going to see them arresting people. There's no backseat to even put them in. Well, it's going to be great. So be careful speeding in North Carolina. It may be a little tough. All right, folks, coming up on Let's Talk Wheels, we're going to have some car reviews on the Toyota Crown. that's where you got the crown word.

And Karen Bailey Chapman, great lady from SEMA, she's gonna talk to us about EVs. And then we're gonna tackle some questions, mail to mike at letstalkwheels.com. And all of this coming up on today's show is gonna be lots of fun, so hang on.

For all this tomfoolery, we'll be right back with more Let's Talk Wheels. Music. Welcome back to Let's Talk Wheels. Mike Herzing and Jeremy Bearbomb this week. I was driving, I'm going to talk about my car review, a 2025 Toyota Crown. All right. And if you don't, if you're not aware of the crown, think of it as maybe a sexier version of the Avalon, which all of them are sexy besides the Avalon. But this is a, it's a nice, this is a car and it's, it'll seat five. And this is a big car, full size.

It's a hybrid because that's what Toyota really is really good at. And that's what they're selling a lot of right now. But this is, you know, it's a taller car. It's almost looks like an SUV, you know, stance on it. And it's higher up in the air. So a lot of people that are kind of torn between buying a car and an SUV look at this and go, wait a minute, this is kind of in between. It's got a trunk. It's a very good looking car. I mean, this thing looks great.

And I've had two people stop me and go, man, this is a good looking car. What is it? And I was like, it's a crown. And they were like, man, I thought it was a Lexus, but it's beautiful. Very sexy looking. The one I had was copper and black. Really looked good. Got 340 combined horsepower. You can, now there's the different trim levels are XLE, limited, nightshade, and platinum. Of course, they gave me the platinum, which is the top of the food chain.

The XLE is the base model. It's very nice. It starts at around $43,000 is the average price. The limited is about $48,000. Nightshade's just a little bit more, around $50,000. And then the Platinum I have is $58,169 after shipping and things like that. This kind of competes with an Audi A6 or I'm kind of putting all these luxury cars, maybe an E-Class Mercedes, BMW 5 Series, or maybe the 3 Series, but probably closer to 5.

It's very nice, okay? It is a very, nice semi-luxury car but it is also can be a little sporty it's got adaptive suspension it's got sport mode you know you got comfort mode and sport mode and custom and you can adjust how sensitive the steering is and how the brakes are and and you can adjust the like i said it's got adaptive suspension which is kind of nice so you can fling it into a corner and do okay it's but it's not really made for that it's on the highway you'd be looking down you're

going oh my gosh i'm doing 85 or 90 you just look down it's very deceiving but it looks so good and it's nice inside the interior is very nice. It's plush, got a, first you'd sit in and you'd look at the screen, you know, the infotainment screen, and it's just nice rectangular, big screen. It just looks, it looks well-designed, like the car was built around the screen. Got a nice center console, the way the center stack is, the way everything feels and drives.

Nice vehicle. Have you ever seen one of these things, Jeremy? I have actually not seen one on the road yet, or not noticed one on the road. I mean, this thing is loaded with everything. It will actually drive for you. It has a little camera that looks at you, and it'll keep you in the lane. It'll go around turns. It'll do this other stuff. Of course, if you quit paying attention, it'll turn itself off. It's got its own little self-driving type of setup.

It's got adaptive cruise control. It's got all of the lane divergence. It's got all of the blind spot monitoring. This one had an optional 360-degree camera. It's just so comfortable. It's got a big trunk and plenty of room in the back seat for people.

This is, like I said, this is bigger than a Honda Accord, but it's just just a big car that's very nice i can see this easily being the top of the line top of the food chain for toyota as far as cars going but it don't you like the look of it i was going to say if you took off the logos you wouldn't think it's a toyota and i really hope this is the design language that toyota keeps pushing forward you know a lot of their cars don't have led headlights.

This is the first one that has these really cool daytime running lights and makes the car look a lot more modern. I think some of the previous Toyotas look dated because of how their light structure was done. This is really nice. Well, you know, it comes with a hybrid system, but now the XLE Limited Nightshade, they come with a 236 horsepower version with a a four-cylinder and a hybrid system and a CVT transmission. Now, the Platinum, they get 340 horsepower set up.

With a six-speed transmission. That is much better. It drives good. It's got Comfort Sport, Sport Plus, and Custom Modes to drive it. Everything standard is all-wheel drive. This model had heated seats and heated and cooled seats. It had heated back seats. It had everything in the world. But I said it's got a nice little center console, kind of an armrest that comes out in the back seat. And it's very comfortable on the highway.

This is a really, really nice car. I could see owning one of these because I've started to drive it pretty aggressively and it's fun and you get some kind of stupid, I mean, it says that you can get 32 miles per gallon on highway. You can easily get it. 29 in the city, it's about right. And 30 average, I mean, I drove it like I stole it. I mean, oh my God, I was driving it aggressively and I got 30 miles a gallon.

I just like the seating position. You're not on the floor like a typical, you know, compact car. You're upright and elevated, more like an SUV, which is a lot more comfortable, especially for someone tall like myself. Whoa, yeah. You know, what's nice is when you've got some Bubba in the pickup truck behind you at night with his bright lights because he's raised his truck up, it doesn't bother you as much. That's very, very nice.

I mean, this thing has got everything you want. It drives. It sounds good. It's got 11-speaker JBL audio system. It's got all kinds of a neat infotainment system. It's easy to sync your phone. It does everything very, very well. And I just love it. But it's got a heads-up display, leather seats, which you can actually change a gauge cluster all around and do all kinds of stuff with it. So, guys, it's got a big panoramic sunroof or moonroof, if you want to put it. And it's just huge.

But the backup camera works great. If you get something behind you, it'll stop you and keep you from doing anything stupid. So if you haven't driven one of the things or looked at one of the things, go there and you're going to say, man, this thing is a car from five years from now. And I love the fact that if they get one in copper with black trim, oh my gosh, I'll have to send you a picture of this, Jeremy. I'll post one on there.

Good looking car. So go to your Toyota dealer and say, look, I'm looking for a car. Show me this one. Because I'd pick this over a Lexus. It's like a Lexus with a Toyota badge on it. It's that nice inside. So, all right, let's answer a car question. What do you think? Yeah. Kathy asks, I have a black 2015 Honda CR-V and the paint on the roof and hood has become chalky looking. You can peel it off with your nails. Do I need a new paint job?

And that is the clear coat on your vehicle peeling off. You know... So many years ago, they changed the way they paint cars, lacquer thinner and stuff like that. No, they've gone to different type of paints that are much better for the environment when they paint them. And what they do is they paint your car and then they paint a whole coat of clear on it. Just clear coat. I mean, it just protects the paint. What a great idea.

And so the problem with paint is they're trying to make these cars as light as possible. So when they went to this type of design, they don't have to put 15 coats of lacquer or this kind of stuff on. like you might do on your classic cars, Jeremy. They don't have all these kind of paint. This type of paint, the way it's set up, the way it doesn't have many VOCs that it doesn't emit. And so it's a much better way of painting vehicles.

But they want it thin. They don't want it. They don't want 20 pounds of paint on the car. So they make the paint as thin as they can. They put a clear coat over it. Cool. People don't wax their vehicles. People leave them out in the sun all day. And it bakes the clear coat. Well, guess what? You can peel it off and maybe get with it. Go to a paint shop and have them look at it and see what you think. They'll be able to tell you. All right, folks, we're running out of time.

Coming up, we're going to talk to Karen Bailey Chapman from SEMA, all about EVs and SEMA's work with the government as far as lobbying for our industry. Hang on. Music. Welcome back to Let's Talk Wheels, Mike Kersing and Jeremy Berenbaum. All right, folks, today we're talking to Karen Bailey Chapman. She's from SEMA. You know, SEMA is not just an organization that puts on the awesomest, best show in the automotive industry every year.

You guys do a lot more than that. Karen, welcome to Let's Talk Wheels. How are you doing, girl? I'm doing great, Mike. Thanks for having me on today. Oh, I knew it. I know you guys and Mike Spagnuolo, all those guys, they're all awesome. So tell us what SEMA, tell the folks real quick what SEMA does and what you guys are involved in right now, because it's pretty exciting.

Sure. So, yeah, as you mentioned, everybody knows this about the show in Las Vegas, which is, you know, a kid in a candy store for any of us that love anything that rolls on four wheels or two wheels or whatever. But there's another aspect of SEMA is what we do 365 days a year, and that's advocate on behalf of our membership. all of the small businesses that make up the SEMA business membership, but also all of the enthusiasts out there that get to enjoy our parts.

So they're the folks that keep our folks in business. So we're based here. Our office is based in Washington, D.C., but we also work in all 50 state capitals around the country. Well, you guys are busy. This, folks, in case you're not with SEMA, it's the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association.

So this is all the companies that build all of the customizing type stuff, whether it's light bars or big wheels and tires or exhaust or paint or just So everything under the sun, automotive, is what you guys cover. But, you know, you help. You're not a dealer's association, thank goodness. You're kind of like anti, sort of. But you guys do so much for everybody. I mean, with all of this EPA stuff going on and all these changes and this, this and that, where are we on all this?

Well, that's the big issue, really, that's in front of us right now. And that is with regards to the EV mandates and internal combustion engine bans that we're dealing with. And sort of where it started and where we are today is I'll do a quick little snapshot of that. But California has always been kind of a little bit forward in terms of their policies, not only for what affects their state, but also what can affect a lot of the country. And so in 2022, they passed a rule.

The California Air Resources Board passed a rule that would ban the internal combustion engine, the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles and essentially create an EV mandate. So everyone, you know, the rest of the country always kind of rolls their eyes saying, oh, it's just California being California. But what a lot of Americans don't understand is the fact that actually there are 16 states that follow California's rules.

And in this particular rule, there's 11 states that have signed on to it specifically. So California can't just always just do whatever it wants. It still has to go to the EPA for approval. Thank you. Yeah, so it still has to go for approval. Now, how that approval is implemented changes from administration to administration, depending on who's in the White House. So before the last administration left office earlier this year, they approved California going forward with this.

And so we obviously have an objection to that, not because we're anti-EV. We love everything on wheels. We love all technologies. We are technology neutral. But we also believe that a mandate like this is inappropriate and incredibly bad for our industry, but also incredibly bad for the consumers.

So where we are right now is that because federal agencies have the ability to send and they should send the rules over to Congress for Congress to decide whether or not they approve or disapprove of the rule. So that's where we're at. Congress now has it in front of them saying, do you approve or disapprove of this rule? You know, a lot of people are above EVs, and anybody loves a different way to propel your wheels, but we just don't want to have it shoved down our throat right now.

And I think that in Texas, where I'm from, that's where, now Jeremy's from California has a little bit different view, but not much. He's still a gearhead. I mean, I think there's a really great place for electric cars. But maybe I don't want to pay for somebody getting one with my tax money. And maybe we need to slow this down just a little bit and let the technology catch up. That's my opinion. And I think a lot of people have that opinion. Don't you agree?

Yeah. And we've seen that even in voters. We've seen that when we talked to voters. We saw it in the presidential campaigns. Seema ran actually a pretty significant voter education program because we had two candidates in the presidential race that had very distinct positions on this. No kidding. And so it was an important time for us to really, to bring this issue to the forefront in which it became a forefront in the campaign.

Because again, to your point, Americans don't like to be told what to do. Oftentimes, as I explain it to my international friends, if you tell an American what to do, they're going to do the complete opposite and double it. We're like children. Sure. In other words, we're like children. Exactly. Sure. Well, folks, we're talking to Karen Bailey Chapman. She's the lovely and talented, very talented representative from SEMA this morning that's talking to us. Karen, I mean, what do you think?

I mean, we all love vehicles and we love hybrids and stuff like that. Right now, it seems like the world is busy for hybrids. I mean, we have a lot of electric cars here in Texas, but we have so much distance in between them. The charging system. I mean, I can't remember when you never saw gas stations around and then you saw hundreds. Well, charging stations just don't appear unless the government throws so much money at it that we're trying to save our money right now.

So maybe you guys have some ideas. to help them, right? Well, I think, and again, for us, we want government to be technology neutral because we do believe that, and I think we have a proof point in the automotive industry, is that we've been able to evolve technology on our own. We've been able to evolve technology for a variety of different reasons, whether it's consumer demand, just cooler technology, cleaner technology,

especially in the automotive aftermarket. We know how to do more with less. We know how to get more horsepower out of a four-cylinder engine. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I think, you know, I think we're as an industry uniquely positioned and qualified to demonstrate the fact that we've been able to do more with less cleaner over, you know, the over 100 years that the internal combustion engine has been around and in practice.

And so the fact is, is that we have so many different options out there, whether it's alternative fuels, fuel blends, synthetics, bios, you know, hybrid technology, as you mentioned, hydrogen. There's so much out there. And a lot of people will say, well, but is it actually viable? Well, a lot of that's already in the marketplace. The hybrid is, hydrogen in terms of the heavy trucking industry, alternative fuel blends.

The fuel companies collaborate with the OEs on that. So it is actually already here. Let us do our thing and we'll be able to achieve all of this a lot faster and more quickly than possible. Putting a mandate on us with mine technology. Well, you know, you're right. Folks, we're talking to Karen Bailey Chapman. She's from SEMA.

And Karen, I mean, it's funny, when they made all these rules a couple of years ago, right in the middle of the Biden administration, that's whatever, right or wrong, but either way, or left or right, every way you want to call it. But they didn't, you know, the synthetic blended fuels weren't really popular. The hydrogen stuff has gone nuts. So EV is not the only alternative, like you just said.

And there's so many other alternatives that are growing every day, let's not just get locked into EVs. Let's just kind of look at all of it. Wouldn't you? That's what you're trying to say. 100%. And we were actually just on the hill with a bunch of our members in Washington, D.C. last week. We did a call to action. Is it different up there now? It's a different, well, it depends on what industry you're in.

For our industry, it's a much friendlier space, certainly with this administration and also with this Congress. But the fact is, is that we don't believe that this issue should be as polarized as it is. No. And, you know, we had some lawmakers, particularly on the left of center, say, well, you know, we shall come to the table and discuss. And it's like, well, yeah, that would have been nice about three years ago. Three or four years ago.

You're exactly right. Because, you know, I know out here you can go see EVs and they're just sitting on the showroom floor. And we're some hybrids. There's a there's a waiting list on people. They're sold before they come in. It's just people personalize their vehicles. And that's what SEMA is all about, providing all the goodies that we want to put on there. And I love you guys. I think you're all the best organization because I love all that. I love to hear that.

Evan, you know, but it's nice to have these people. I mean, some of the EPA has gone after some of these shops. And, yeah, they've kind of been advertised they're doing stupid stuff. But, I mean, it's really gotten to the point that we need people like you standing up for everybody. We really appreciate what you do. Oh, thank you. Yep. So tell us a little bit about if you're just a normal person. Well, I don't think anybody listening to this show is normal.

But either way, if you're a normal person, where can we find out more about SEMA? So I think on this particular issue, if you want to weigh in with your lawmakers, go to SEMA, C-R-A dot org. That's specific to this EV mandate issue. You can also check us out at SEMA dot org forward slash advocacy. And you can check out all the different issues because this isn't the only issue we work on. We work on a ton of different issues.

So check us out, sign up for our action alerts, and we'll keep you guys posted on anything and everything that's going on legislatively with regards to the stuff we love. All right. Really appreciate you joining us today, Karen. Thanks so much for having me. All right, folks, that was Karen Bailey Chapman. She's from SEMA. Great folks at SEMA. Hang on.

We've got more Let's Talk Wheels coming up right after this quick break. Music. Music. Music. Welcome back to Let's Talk Wheels, Mike Herzing and Jeremy Bierenbaum. Folks, this is our segment where we talk about classic cars. And the other day, Hagerty had a market report from Glacier. It was on classic.com. And sales of classic cars as of this year have really gone up. And, of course, a lot of these are just the Mecham auctions and all these Pebble Beach and all these Cloncors, the Elegance.

And whereas, you know, these cars are like $3 million cars and $5 million cars, or in some cases, a $50 million car, you know, that's not what most people that listen to this show we're going to be looking at. We're going to be looking at $20,000 cars or $10,000 cars. But it does tell us what the market's doing. And sales are a little bit better. The dollar volume is up, but the sold listings are up. And I saw that Vinger trailer was the number one again.

But what is the sell-through rate, Jeremy? What's that mean when you go farther down the page? That's like when a car goes up for auction, Mike might be the seller. He's going to put a reserve on his car or maybe even a no reserve on his car. The sell-through rate is the amount of cars that actually sold versus the amount of cars that were auctioned on that weekend or day or whatever the time period. it may be.

That's usually like the best indicator of how strong an auction house is, is their sell-through rate. It also, you know, kind of lets you know that, you know, they're setting realistic reserves for their cars because if their sell-through rate is low, we know the cars aren't selling. And that must mean either A, they don't have good cars or B, the reserves are too high.

Okay. Well, that's part of the problem. So, so basically I say, I think my car is worth 20,000 And I go to go to you and you go, oh, well, Mike, looking at the market, it may not be worth 20. It may be worth 16. And you're going, oh, man, I want to sell it for 20. Well, Then you need to go somewhere. It's hard to tell somebody no, isn't it? Yeah. And by setting a reserve, that only is saying that is the lowest amount you want to sell your car for. If it hits that amount, it's going to sell.

They're going to try and sell you on, well, you could make more. We are saying that's the least you're going to sell your car for. But there's no one saying your car is going to go for 20, 25, 30. That just depends on who's watching the auction on that day, who's in love with your car as it's being auctioned, because in an auction environment, it takes two to tango.

Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does. And there are people out there that just think their car is worth stupid amounts of money, and you just go, man, I tell you. They look at their receipts and they say, I have more into this than it's worth, and they're trying to recoup it, right? That's when you see these crazy numbers on Facebook Marketplace and a car that's been sitting on the market for six months, you're going, man, this guy's asking a lot of money. What's the reason?

That's mostly because he's, you know, behind in the car at this point. Well, there's a place in Memphis, Tennessee, that I was looking at Mustangs, and there's a guy in Memphis that goes on eBay and sells a lot of Mustang convertibles. Oh, okay, classic Mustangs. But I'll see him, and they're listed for five to six days in an auction, and he has a reserve, and he's a dealer, and only about one out of five of his cars might sell.

Other than that, I'll see him the next week. Then I'll see him the week after that. And I'll see him the week after that. And he just keeps running them until he finds somebody that'll pay his price. You know what I mean? And, you know, it's really not a very good way to do it. I mean, eBay needs to tell the guy, look, just lower your price a little bit. But he's interested in getting his price more than he is on selling cars, right? Yeah, definitely.

Well, and sometimes I wonder how these dealers are actually doing it when they have cars like that. They're just every week, same car, lower the price by 500 bucks, see who bites, you know. I mean, it's great to see where some cars sold for a million eight or a million two and this kind of stuff. But you got to throw all those outliers out. Right. You know, if one sold for a million eight and the rest sold for a million, that's an outlier.

And that number, you know, is an anomaly. And there may be a reason behind it, but I'm going to go with the grouping. Yeah, folks, Mike Kersing and Jeremy Beardbaum, let's talk wheels. Now, Jeremy, when you're selling a car at an auction, you've got to pay these auction house. The seller and the buyer both pay? Well, it depends. If you're bringing it to like a traditional house, like RM, Meek, you know, any of those, yes, you're paying on both sides.

The seller pays a percentage of the sale and the buyer pays a percentage of the sale. That's sometimes negotiable depending on how good your stuff is that you want to bring them. But for the most part, no. When you talk about these online auctions, like Bring a Trailer and some of their other competitors, it's typically like a $100 fee. It's not really that much to bring your car into the auction.

You're responsible for taking the photos. You're responsible for, you know, kind of doing some of the marketing of your vehicle. You really need to be active in the comments and answering questions and showcasing what it is about your vehicle that's different from, you know, the rest. Yeah, I understand that. I'm looking here on this thing from Classic.com.

They're talking about there's a honda 69 honda s800 roadster which is a car they never really brought into the u.s a lot of a lot of guys brought them in from japan in the late 60s they were a japanese model but it was a little two-seat roads looks like a sunbeam tiger or something alpine and the one sold for 90 91 000 up 81 and so the numbers are showing really good, but not everybody needs a $300,000 car. You know what I mean? So there's a lot of stuff out there. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I mean, with anything, there's going to be ebbs and flows and there's going to be cars that do better than others, like anything, low mileage. High providence, you know, a lot of documentation. Those are all things that are going to help boost the value of a car, low production number, things like that.

You think it's a lot of, I'll see cars for sale on Facebook Marketplace and there's two pictures and they don't tell you any information, but they want some kind of like $40,000 for this car. And I'm like, you got two pictures and it doesn't tell me anything. You know what? To be honest, though, I listed a car on Facebook Marketplace. I put two photos because I'm worried about somebody else stealing my photos and then trying to copy my ad and scam somebody.

So I typically will list two photos as soon as someone talks to me and I can tell they are, you know, an active, interested buyer. I'll hit them with all the photos I have. But I do get what you're saying. Sometimes it is a turnoff when someone doesn't have a lot of photos, doesn't have a lot of information. It's like, are you really trying to sell the car or, you know, why am I, the buyer, having to force all this information out of you? You should be actively giving it to me.

Well, I get stuff on Marketplace, I guess, because it's free. But, I mean, there are people out there that just put two pictures and there's a picture of a motorcycle from the 80s, a Honda, and it's sitting over there and it's like outside. There's stuff growing through the spokes and everything. Trees, you know, bushes growing through the spokes. And they want like, you know, $5,000 for it. I'm like, it's not even have a seat, has no gas tank. And this is a $200 deal for parts.

Oh, by the way, we don't have a title for it, but I want $5,000. Yeah, I get that all the time. You know, I'm sitting in a gas station in an old car. Someone pulls up and they go, oh, I got one just like it. You know, what do you think it's worth? And I'm going, well, is it just like it or is it just the same body style? Because just because it's the same body style doesn't mean it's the same car.

They may look similar or even identical, but that doesn't mean what's under the hood, what's inside the cabin is the same. You're exactly right. I mean, a lot of it has to do with whether it has the good brakes, whether it has, you know, it's an automatic or manual, whether it's got a V6 or straight six or a V8. Or how it's optioned or everything. It's totally different. Yeah, stock, modified, you know, and there's a butt for every seat.

You know, you might be looking for a bone stock Mustang where your neighbor is looking for a highly modified one. Yeah, yeah, you're right. And I want a convertible, but I want a V8. I don't want a six-cylinder. And there's so many different things that you have to do. So the main thing is find out what you want, start doing research on it, and then start looking around for the best deal. This website, classic.com, C-L-A-S-S-I-C.com is great for comps. I use it all the time.

Perfect. We'll use that for comps. All right, folks. I hope everybody enjoyed the show. I hope you had a chance. It was great to talk to the SEMA people. She was hilarious to talk to. It's great that SEMA does so much lobbying and stuff for our industry. I think it's really great. And it's pretty tough on the aftermarket industry. All right, folks. If you enjoyed our show, tune in to the same station next week, and we'll get another episode of Let's Talk Wheels.

And if you missed part of the show, you can always catch the podcast on all the major podcast platforms. 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, like we did in today's show, email mike at letstalkwheels.com. We'll always respond, and we love to hear your car questions.

On behalf of Jeremy Berenbaum, Matt Peralta and myself, thank you for joining us today on the Talk Media Radio Network. I'm Mike Herzing. Have a great week, folks. And hang on for a quick car review from our reporter, Matt Peralta. Happy trails.

Thanks for joining us on another edition of Let's Talk Wheels. We'll see you next week. Music. All right, guys, this week I was driving a 2023 Hyundai Elantra Hybrid. Look, let's talk about this vehicle for a second, because this is a sticker price of $30,000. I am incredibly impressed. 50 miles per gallon you can get for this hybrid. This Hyundai has an overall safety score of a five-star, five-star driver front, five-star front seat, rear seat, rollover. This is an extremely safe vehicle

and a vehicle that has a ton of features in it. I bang for your buck. This is awesome. I am a very big proponent and a very big fan of what Hyundai and Kia have been doing in particular with their drive towards electric vehicles and their drive towards hybrids. So let's talk about what this vehicle has from an engine perspective, okay? It is a four-cylinder engine, six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. It's a hybrid. So the first couple of 20 miles or so at miles per hour,

you're getting some pickup and it's not that bad, okay? It's not the fastest. It has a nice drive to it. It feels nice. It's big. It's comfortable, okay? It's 140 horsepower. This vehicle is not going to blow you away, okay? It's not like you're looking at this going like, oh my gosh, this is the greatest vehicle ever. But the bang for the buck, what you get from a comfort and convenience standpoint, it's got a 10.25 inch navigation system with a high resolution touchscreen.

10.25 fully digital instrument cluster, which is awesome to see. You have proximity key with push button start, which is again, if you are in the desert, I've talked about this a lot in my reviews, but in the desert, push button start is awesome. Not for the cold, for the heat. Get this thing nice and cool before you ever get into the thing is awesome. Rear view camera with dynamic guidelines really clear and crystal enable to see it.

Leather trim seating, heated front seats, ventilated front seats. Again, with the hot weather, ventilated is more important than the heated, but you get that here with this vehicle. You've got a memory system for the driver's seat, which is nice. Auto dimming rear view mirror. Power seats in the front with lumbar support. 60-40 split in the back, which is nice. You've got heated mirrors. Thank you. Wireless charging. Again, for a vehicle that comes in at $30,000,

you can get it for cheaper than that. To have that is awesome. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, integrated wire, not wireless, but integrated still. Bose Premium Audio System, which is awesome. You've got three years for a complimentary Blue Link system. If you are in the market for a commuter car, if you're looking to not break the bank. I'm in the market for this type of vehicle myself. And after driving it, I'm going to go back and take a look at what we can get from a brake perspective.

If you're in a state that will give you some tax breaks and some price breaks, some incentives to buy a hybrid, I think it's absolutely worth taking a look at this vehicle and figuring out whether or not you can afford to get into it because the bang for the buck is absolutely outstanding. 17-inch alloy wheels, power sunroof, LED headlights and taillights, which is really, really nice to have. And then you get the warranty, the five-year, 60,000-mile new vehicle warranty.

10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, which is awesome, five-year, unlimited-mile roadside assist. This is for a hybrid. This vehicle is going to go for a very long time, and you don't have to worry really about anything breaking. It's going to cover anything that's warranty in in the warranty. 100,000 miles on the battery, which is really important. So you can pretty much feel clear this car is going to go for 100,000 miles.

I think this is a vehicle you can look at from a lease perspective. It's a vehicle you can look at from a buying perspective. You can negotiate this down. I really think if you are someone, if you've got a kid going to college and you're looking for a vehicle that's going to be safe, that they aren't going to go and drive crazy around. It's a five-star. It's the highest rated vehicle safety-wise you can get from the NHTSCA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Love this vehicle. I really, really do. Bang for the buck, safety, mileage. Yes, the engine's not the most powerful. Yes, sometimes when the engine kicks on, it can be a little bit loud. Not the quietness of cabins, but it's very comfortable. It's got great, I mean, from a price perspective, I think you got to check it out because you can get it all the way down to like 23, 24 from a stripped down version on this. It's worth the test drive. It's worth checking it out in particular if you're

in the market for a vehicle. The trunk space is big, man. 14.2 feet of cargo space in the back, which is awesome. If you're someone who's going to be using it for a car, for travel, or if you're, you know, just going to the store and need a big trunk for a Costco trip, it's, it's absolutely something I would take a look at and something I would get behind the wheel to feel. this vehicle is right for you. Check it out. 2023 Hyundai Elantra in the hybrid, a very fun vehicle worth checking out.

Hey guys, this week I was driving a vehicle that I've talked about a lot. I think the Santa Fes are awesome for Hyundai and I had a 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe in the calligraphy trim level, which means it's not the cheapest of vehicles. You're going to talk about a vehicle that is bordering on that luxury word.

Sticker price on the vehicle that I drove for this all-wheel drive. $45,000 is the sticker price, which I think actually is a reasonable price for what you get from this vehicle. It has a luxurious interior. When you sit in this vehicle, you feel like you paid a lot more than $45,000. It is very comfortable to sit in this vehicle. I'm a big fan of some of the little things that you get.

They're just a little bit different. The ambient interior lighting that you can switch around and change, I really liked. You've got the manual rear side window sunshade. This, I mean, for me, I live in Vegas, okay? So when it comes to the heat and it comes to the sun, these are a little tiny trim thing that really stands out because you can keep the car cool, which is difficult to do all the time when the sun is beaten down. So you go ahead and put that shade up.

My daughter loves it for the rear. It's awesome. in the back. Very, very cool to have that option. The wireless phone charger, it seems like a small thing. Like Matt, come on. It's a big deal to me. Okay. Your front and second row USB charging points are absolutely required in 2023. You just have to have it simply because of how many vehicles, how many things we're bringing into our vehicle to charge. 10.25 touchscreen.

Awesome for infotainment. The Harman Kardon Premium Auto System is phenomenal. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto also is there. Now, let's talk about the engine for this vehicle. 2.4 liter turbocharged engine. Six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission gets the job done. 100% gets the job done. You weren't really buying this vehicle for the engine per se. You want it for some other things, but it gets the job done. I mean, literally, I have nothing to say negative about the way this car drives.

It's extremely comfortable the way that it rolls. There are so many family-friendly features. Hyundai does a great job of thinking about families. How are they going to be in this vehicle? What are they going to want? What do they look to? The engine gets the job done. It's responsive. Maybe it's not the fastest of SUVs. It doesn't really matter to me on that, to be quite honest. I'm a big fan of the interior because it just feels when you're sitting in there, it's very luxurious.

Now, for some people, they don't like the fact that there are buttons to change the gears, to go from park to drive to reverse to the parking brake. These are buttons. It's not a shifter. It's not a pull-down lever. It's just a button. I don't mind it. I think you get used to it very quickly. Not a big deal. It feels cool. It feels different to have that. So I don't mind it. Big sunroof, really fun, lights floods in everywhere you get.

There's just a lot of really cool opportunities to see around the vehicle. And when you're in a sunny place like I am, it's fun to have the sun to be able to come in and drop down on you. I love that the Hyundai Santa Fe, when you hit the left or the right shifter, you get a camera view straight off of your side mirror. So from a blind spot protection perspective. It's really easy. I mean, it's so simple to do.

It's really fun to have that. It looks cool for the dash when it kind of clicks on and you can see what's going on. I like it a lot. It's a small little thing again, but I do think it's cool. It's a cool feature to have with this. Your proximity key with push button start is great for the heat or the cold here. Remote start smart parking assist is nice. Surround view monitor helps you from avoiding banging into things, whether it be in a garage or whatnot, backing up.

12.3 inch digital instrument cluster. Very great to see all that. Napa leather seating surfaces, very luxurious, very comfortable to have this. Heated front and second row seats. Great. I wish the second row was also ventilated. It's heated, but it's not ventilated. So it's a little, to me, it's like if you're going to put the heated seats back there, why not put the ventilated seats back there as well? Because you're already down there, you are doing those things.

I know it's more expensive and more difficult to do, But that's one thing I would like to see in the future that if you're going to have the heated rear seats, let's have ventilated rear seats as well. For someone who lives like me in the Southwest, I'm looking for things that are cooling me down, not things that are going to heat me up just because I don't deal with that all that often.

But if you're in a colder climate, then that's fine. You probably would look for the heated rear seats more than you would look for those seats, those ventilated seats like me. It's safe, five-star overall safety rating. It's a vehicle that feels more expensive than it is. Great bang for your buck. Really nice looking grill. Really nice looking wheels. Fun vehicle to drive. Family friendly. Does what you want. Safe and convenient to be inside of it. Good gas mileage. Not great, but good enough.

Big fan of the Santa Fe's. Hyundai does a great job with it. This at the calligraphy all-wheel drive trim level. Definitely worth your eye.