"The Wheel Deal: Lawsuits, Luxurious Lexus, and Lessons from a Doc"

Music. Welcome to Let's Talk Wheels. Here's Mike Herzing and Jeremy Bierenbaum.

Today we've got a manufacturer being sued because their trucks are too easy to steal. We've got a dumb thief, like most of them, that almost got away with something with a hellcat before social media got him caught. We've also got a doctor telling us what our parents used to say to us. I remember every night we'll talk about that. We're also answering a ton of your car questions and looking at a new Lexus TX350. What a cool SUV. I like this thing.

All right, we're going to talk about this. So buckle up, folks. Welcome to your favorite auto show, Let's Talk Wheels. I'm Mike Herzing, and every week we're going to talk about the latest automotive and power sports news, interviews, car reviews, and classic car updates from my co-host, Jeremy Berenbaum, based right there in Southern California. Let's bring you in right now. Mr. B, what's up, buddy? Hey, prices, right? Yeah. I don't know. Gases. I saw gas for like $2.32 a day ago.

I was in New York the other day and I saw how cheap gas was. What did you do? Did you do something wrong and they sent you to New York? No, I actually just took a little vacation with my wife for a couple of days before we went to a wedding in New Jersey. I got a little East Coast tour. It was beautiful. Yeah. Really enjoyed the different scenery. Hot and sweaty, though. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But out in Jersey, there were some really cool driving

roads, I felt like, through the trees and whatnot. I would have enjoyed being in a nice, fun car. Boy, wouldn't it be nice to have a Miata or something up there? That's honestly all you need to have a good time, is a $5,000 Miata. You know, you're right. A good old 90s Miata is just super fun vehicles and easy to work on. And, you know, there's just everything is just so awesome with those vehicles.

But I'm glad you had a good time. It doesn't have to be, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a drop-top manual transmission and put a smile on your face when you drive it. No kidding. It's just how much fun they are. But before we get ahead of ourselves, by the way, folks, I've got a great story that turns out there's a happy ending. And it's just a warning about breaking down. We're going to talk about that in just a minute.

But before we get ahead, let's get started with the news and notes segment and talk about General Motors is being sued again because their trucks are too easy to steal. What do you think about that? You drive a GM truck, GMC? I drive a GM truck. I mean, you know, Hyundai-Kia had the same issue. I mean, I think theirs was worse because you could literally do it with a wire that 90% of people have in their car to charge their phone type of deal.

This is actually, you know, it's a little bit silly. I don't think it's GM's fault totally. There's a big sense of safety with people in new cars. They think they lock it and their car is safe and whatnot. Sure. The thing is, or the claim is that the GM cars are very easy to hack the keyless entry system technology by a criminal. But that criminal needs to have a device that clones the signal.

So what your key fob does is it sends a lo-fi signal to your car to unlock it, start it, you know, whatever. Nobody wants to carry keys anymore. Right, exactly. You know, that's the safest thing is just to have your key. But anyways, we won't rant about that. These lo-fi signals are what tell your car the key fob is in the car, and then it can start, tequila start. What's happening is these, say, hacker thieves are using a device about the

size of an iPhone that can clone the transmission. So you might be walking to your car and unlock it. They're close by, and they can grab that signal out of the air. And then later on. They just follow you home, yeah. And then later on, they can come back, and they're not breaking it. They're breaking into the car, but they're using the key. The car doesn't know any different. And the class action lawsuit is claiming that GM could be doing a better job to protect their vehicles.

Well, you know, class action lawsuits, as we talked earlier. You know, it's just, it's, the company being sued gets charged millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. And the people, each person that's part of the suit gets like. A hundred bucks. And the lawyers make millions. Yeah. And so that's the crappy part about that. The lawyers are the ones that win. That's all it is. But, you know, to be honest with you, just putting a $29.95 club will solve most of these problems.

Like you always say, all we got to do is make my car bigger pain in the butt to steal than the one next to me.

Exactly. you know and and i know with all these fancy wheels and audio systems and speakers and and all kinds of nice interiors hey somebody's got a 2013 well i'm gonna go steal a 2020 model so and so or 2025 so and so and i'll take that interior and put it in mine you know which most of those these trucks you could do that you know what i mean like my son has a 21 ram 1500 texas edition, Well, we have a 22 Laramie Longhorn, which is the top of the line, just like the Platinum.

And that interior would fit right in. So somebody could steal mine. It's just put in their cheap RAM. All of a sudden, they've got a gorgeous interior. Everything just plugs right in. You know what I mean? And so why not? Make your vehicle hard. There's a false sense of security. And then people that added inconvenience to reach over, put the club in. And a lot of people I know have a club, put it on. They don't even lock it.

I won't say who, but, you know, it's just the deterrent that you see it in the window and you just move on to the next car. That's right. That's exactly what they do, you know. And so, folks, what you need to do is just make your vehicle. You know, where somebody is just a bigger pain in the butt. I've talked to people that were thieves. I've talked to journalists that interviewed people that were professional car thieves. And they just say, I just, I don't bother. I'll move on to the next one.

Yeah. Oh, they're going to cut this. They'll do that. They'll do that. No, they want the easy way out. They just move on to the next one. And that's it. By the way, folks, Mike Herzing and Jeremy Bierenbaum. You know, so let's talk about a dumb thief. I don't think there's any smart thieves. because, you know, you're a thief, you're eventually going to get caught and whatnot.

But anyways, a man in Milwaukee stole a Hellcat right out of a parking lot and then posted a photo of himself in the car on Instagram. He got caught. And it says, trophy for me, a photo. What a guy. And he's doing a selfie and everything in this car. And it was a Trackhawk with 770 horsepower, all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. What a great Jeep. So much fun. So this guy was from Florida and he went up to Milwaukee to visit his fiance and was at a hotel and boom, it's gone.

Well, guess what? They got it back next day. You know, isn't that wild? He's lucky. You know, most of the time people are parting these things out right away. Luckily, this guy just took it for a trophy and didn't mess anything up. He was going to drive it for a while. But the police found all types of electronic gear so he can clone keys and things like that.

So that's what he did. You know, a lot of people, like on some certain GMs, you can just reach up the inner fender, unplug the computer inside the inner fender up in the left front fender and unplug the computer and plug in a new one.

You know, another one, you have your own little key fob, you just push that button and you don't even need the cloners, but you can just put another flat pop. You know, with the new CAN bus systems that are in all these cars, you know, It's basically a common network and how the computers all talk to each other and just plug a new one in. That's all you got to do. I mean, as they always say, locks only keep the honest people out.

You know, if someone wants it, they're going to take it. And, you know, hopefully they're not going to hurt you or anybody. Make it a little bit harder to take. Yeah. Because dealing with an insurance company is terrible. All right. Real quick. Well, actually, we don't really have much time. But real quick, my son was driving home and ran over something with his boat. Of course, his boat is 28 foot. and it probably weighs 12,000, 14,000 pounds.

Got a triple axle trailer and ripped the axles out of it on the side of the road. Here he is on the interstate midnight on a Saturday night and he has a service truck out there welding the trailer back together just so he can get home. You can't put a 27-foot boat on a flatbed rollback and drive it back. It was a nightmare. But always carry flares or some type of light, strobe lights or something just so you can put down. so people don't run over you because nobody moves over or anything.

Of course, no state troopers stopped. Nobody stopped to help. If he had a friend with him, here it is with two little girls, his wife. And so it was a nightmare. But they finally got home about six hours later. Be prepared. So coming up, we're going to have a talk about a review of the new Lexus TX350. We're answering a ton of car questions, along with a fun interview with Dr.

Francesca Littow. So all this coming up on today's Let's Talk Wheels. Be right back. Music. Back to what's stuck wheels, Mike Herzing and Jeremy Beerenbaum. This is our car review segment. And this week, I'm going to talk about a really fun Lexus, a TX350. Now, everybody's used to the RX and a great vehicle. My favorite Lexus. This one might be my favorite Lexus now, okay? It is, you know, basically the cousin of the Grand Highlander,

which is a nice three-row SUV. And the third row, actually, you can put humans in it. And so it's unlike a lot of three-row SUVs. It's midsize. It's not going to be the size of a Sequoia or it's not going to be the size of an Armada or a Tahoe or something. But it's just a little bit smaller. And this is a really fun vehicle. You can get it in rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. You can get it as a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid.

The one I had was not. It was the, they make the 350, the TX350, 500, and 550. I didn't drive the 500 and 550s, but I have before. And those are basically, instead of a four-cylinder, they use a V6. And one of them is a hybrid, and one of them is a plug-in hybrid. And they are significantly more money. This is not really all that horrible. But, you know, the Grand Highlander is a super popular Toyota.

And so Lexus decided they would take the bones of that, fix it up and make it a lot nicer and do this. But basically, you can get it set up for six or seven seats. The second row can either be a bench seat or it can be two captain's chairs that are heated and cooled, by the way. You can get it, like I said, an all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive. It's got a four-year, 50,000-mile warranty. This is a really nice car. This would be kind of like a Volvo XC90, Audi Q7.

Maybe a Lincoln Aviator, maybe the qx 60 on the uh infinities and something like that that come of this the base model runs a little over 56 000 the premium model which is a little bit nicer for 59 and change the luxury model which is i had starts off at 61 890 and then there's the s sport which i just came out with that's the sport model that one's 65 now that's how you start one you can add up things to them like put in the good audio system things like that but it's you know

it's got this one's got a 2.4 liter four-cylinder turbo with 275 horsepower eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive got a 5 000 pound towing capacity which is really nice you know nice little travel trailer something like that that makes it easy to go auto leveling led headlights. You know how nice that is so you don't sit there and shine and, you know, you've got the mother-in-law in the back, so the car's kind of sitting in the back a little, you know, back heavy.

So instead of the lights pointing at the trees, it levels them, you know, or you got a little trailer or something like that. You know what? I like the ones that do the slight turning on curves. Oh, yeah, articulated. Yeah, those are great. You think it's silly, but it works really well. It really does. Multi-zone, private control, climate control, rear sunshades, all these wireless chargers.

Lexus has something called Safety Sense 3.0, which is their latest stuff, with all the blind spot monitors and all that stuff. It has every safety feature in the world. Got so many airbags, you lose count. Got a 14-inch display, all kinds of connected services, okay? You get SiriusXM Radio with a three-month trial subscription. You get wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto. Comes with 20-inch wheels, but mine had an option for $2,300.

$2,140 for 22-inch wheels. I would have stuck with the 20s. Makes it ride a little bit better. Doesn't look quite as cool. I think they just need to make the design for the 20-inch rims better. And I think a lot of brands do that. They make their bigger rims look cooler. And in all reality, the smaller rim is going to have a much better ride. And I think they just start making them look cool. and people start not wanting to pay $20. I agree.

Now, there is one option. So basically, this thing started at $61,890. It had a heated and vented second row captain's chairs, which is an extra $680. That's kind of nice if you have kids and things like that. Convenience package with the front cross-traffic alert, the traffic jam assist, which is you have to have what's Drive Connect subscription. So this is more subscription you have for those kind of services. 4G network with a digital key, which is another subscription they want you to have.

And then it's at 22-inch wheels. Now, this one had the Mark Levinson sound system. The standard audio system has like 11 or 12 speakers. This has 21. Ooh, how does that sound? And it's got acoustic glass, and it's got special insulation. So it's so quiet inside. And the audio system, you can crank it up. There's no distortion. You can have blood running out of your ears, and it still has almost no distortion. It is the best audio system in the industry.

Thank you, car and driver. I mean, car and driver. That was who they talk about it all the time. Thank you, Lexus, for doing this because Mark Levinson's audio systems are the best. They really are. It had another technology package for another $2,300 with some other panoramic view mirror. Oh, it had the rearview mirror was a camera, which is, I love those. Although it does make looks like somebody's like two feet from me, but they're really not.

Advanced parking with with a remote park and and this kind of stuff cargo mats illuminated door sills for 809 come on really you know it makes it makes some people happy you know i know and i think it's a silly accessory hatch cargo lamps 400 bucks 399 dollars my car so basically it turns out to be 73,518, which is the same as every car I've had for the last three weeks. I mean, I had the 4Runner, which was 72. I had the Land Rover, which was 72. You know, this is nuts. And this is basically 73.

I mean, when did cars become 70,000? Granted, it's a Toyota. It's a built well. It drives good. It does all these wonderful things. But $73,000? Come on. I'm sure someone can justify it. Where did we go wrong? Yeah, I mean, I'm paying 20 bucks for a burger sometimes out here in L.A. So, you know, everything's just gotten expensive. Yeah, it is. and I'm just whining about it like an old man, but that's what I do. All right, guys.

If you want a really nice vehicle, this is probably one of my favorite Lexus. Now, you'll take a look at it. Stone cold, reliable, drives good, looks good. Check them out. I think this is the best-selling size segment. Like a lot of people get these big SUVs. This is the perfect size. You can even fit, you know, seven, but the reality is you're going to have four or five.

If you're pulling a giant boat or a travel trailer, it's nice to have something bigger, But other than that, no, this is wonderful. All right. I love it. All right. Time, because I got a question. Shelly wants to know about direct injection engines. She's heard us talk about them before, but does she avoid them or is there a way to maintain them? It's hard to avoid them. First of all. At this point, right? Yeah. No kidding.

Almost everything is now, which is basically there's no, you know, everybody used to think, oh, just go in the carburetor or the throttle body. And then the fuel goes in there. Then it goes, you know, from the injectors and goes through the intake and then goes behind the valves and overs out. Well, direct injection bypasses all that. It just shoots the fuel into the combustion chamber, just like on a diesel. Well, that's great, except the fuel never cleans off the back of the valves.

So every 25,000, 30,000 miles, you need to take it into a shop or some shop, and they'll put a fog through it, through the intake, and clean off the back of the valves. Coming up, we're going to talk to Dr. Francesca Littow from GM about going outdoors.

Hang on, she's coming up right after this quick break. Music. The Let's Talk Reels, Welcome back to Let's Talk Wheels, Mike Kersing and Jeremy Berenbaum. You know, Ford's really good about helping people and doing a lot more than most car companies do. And on that, we have Dr. Francesca Lido, and she is Ford's medical director. She's going to tell us how we need to go outside and have fun. Doc, welcome to Let's Talk Wheels. Thanks, Mike. How much does it help us to

go outside? It really can help us. Again... Some examples are just lowering our blood pressure, boosting our mood, and perhaps most importantly for a lot of us, reducing our stress. So, you know, we can go out and have fun. I mean, you know, it's funny. The pandemic that we had was really horrible, and it showed a lot of things. But one thing it did, only one of the few good things it did is it got us outside because we couldn't stay inside.

People realize how much fun it was riding bicycles and going to parks and kayaking and boating and doing everything else, you know. And, of course, we've got to have a truck and it's nice to have a truck or an SUV to take the kids and everybody out and enjoy yourself. And Ford seems to help us with that. But, I mean, you get to write prescriptions on taking time off, right?

Well, again, these Explorer prescriptions are meant to be ideas, inspirations for how we can enjoy the benefits of time in nature. So you actually don't even need a vehicle. You can get that benefit simply from taking a walk around your neighborhood. But if you'd like to go farther afield and do some of those activities like kayaking or going to the seashore or driving to a park, for example, where you can take a hike, then this vehicle can give you a way to do that.

Well, you know, you're right. And as a doctor, you know how people just, you know, you can't sit at a cubicle or underneath ferrets and lights for that long without going crazy. And you need to just go outside. Like I said, my dog will lay out in the backyard on the hottest day in the summer and he'll lay on their back and they'll wiggle around in the grass and enjoy themselves.

I mean, there are some times that I just get out there and I wear, you know, flip flops and go in there, slip my shoes off and just walk around in the grass. It seems to make me feel better. Is that in my brain or what? No, actually, that's a real thing. And again, just going around and experiencing the smells of nature, the different textures of nature, even going out to, say, a public garden or a park and looking at all the different colors.

These are ways that we can both stimulate our brain and take a break from the screens and other tech and really have that time in nature that we know can benefit our mood as well as help us to have some peacefulness. Well, you know, with all of the craziness in the world right now, it's kind of unstable. Of course, it always is. Even since the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60s when I was around, hiding under my desk as a kid, learning all that stuff, it was scary. But you know what?

It's nice. Ford has always had Ford Times and all these magazines and stuff. It was all about traveling and doing this stuff. There's so many great places right here in the USA where you're in Michigan and you've got so many parks and lakes and things like that. Texas is the same way. There are so many wonderful state parks and even national parks, but state parks are really great and they're close. You know, isn't that great?

It really is. And again, even going to, say, a farmer's market or just, you know, going locally in your neighborhood, for example, in the summertime to listen to outdoor music. These are all things that we know can benefit our health. You know, I went to the Bacon Festival last weekend here in East Houston, and it was great, except I gained about two pounds. But, you know, but I walked a lot. You know, I ended up going like 10,000 steps that day and all that stuff. And I felt better.

So that's really a thing, isn't it? It really is a thing. And again, these are nature-based ideas to give inspiration for people to customize those activities, whether they want to go to a festival or, again, whether they want to sit on the seashore and listen to the sounds of the water and the birds. You know, you're exactly right. Sometimes it's just nice to go out there and chill, take the dogs to the dog park and all that. Folks, if you just tuned in, we're talking to Dr. Francesca Lido.

She is Ford's medical director. She's talking about the advantages of just going outside and chilling. Like I said, when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, we would, you know, I'm six years old and my mom would just say, come on back, you know, by dark. When the streetlights come on, you better be home. And we might go 25 miles away on our bicycles, but we were two or three of us and we were always fun and it was out in the country.

And so, you know, it's different times, but we sure enjoyed the sunshine, you know what I mean? Yeah, and again, people can recapture that now in whatever way suits their lives. So it could be, again, walking, going on a picnic, or preparing a meal outside with others at the barbecue, all of that outside time count. Now, Doc, do you drive an Explorer? I'm not lucky enough yet to have one of the new Explorers. Well, you know what?

All of them are good. You know, all the new cars and everything, they used to be driving a truck to throw your bicycles in the back or something like that. It was, you had to give up something to get something. You had to have a horrible ride and horrible fuel economy and a Spartan interior just so you could load stuff in and go to the parks and stuff. But now the new SUVs and trucks are so comfortable and so nice. It's like a family. In Texas, we use, you know, and in Michigan,

something too. A truck is a family car. And so it makes it nice to be able to, in comfort, travel and do things and get outside. And you guys are prescribing easy, accessible, nature-based activities to boost mental health and family connection. That is absolutely a thousand percent right. Wouldn't you agree? I certainly would. And I think, you know, if people want to get more information about them, they can go to www.fromtheroad.ford.com and take a look at all these different ideas.

Fromtheroad.ford.com. That's right. Just suggestions. You know, there are so many things. People, end of the weekend, they're like, what do we do? What do we do? What's going on this weekend? And, well, okay, in case it rains, we got this to do. It doesn't rain. Well, you know, we end up sitting on our butts watching television. And that's not good for anybody, is it? Well, again, a little bit of TV watching isn't necessarily bad.

But, again, what we know is that getting out there in any form, whether you're walking or taking a bike or, you know, maybe hiking, it's all good to have that time in nature. Now, Doc, I see that you're a Navy veteran. So did you come out of the service? How long were you in the service? Were you in for one tour or what? I was actually in for a total of 19 years. Oh, God. So four reserve and 15 active. Awesome.

So, I mean, so you know all about getting out there in the nature and thank you for your service. But I really appreciate you coming to Ford and we're getting hired. I don't know if you approached Ford or what, but this is all typical Ford. It really is. They do this stuff for people to try to help you. It isn't just about selling you a car, is it? You found that out. It's more about helping people. And then when they feel good about it, they'll buy a car, right?

Well, again, I think this is truly an opportunity where you can take yourself outside with your feet. You can certainly take yourself outside with a vehicle. And these vehicles are for adventure seekers and families to use to get out there and experience the benefits of nature. Wow. That is really cool. And so, all right, so we're going to get out there in the sunshine. We're not going to overheat. Now, by the way, what about overheating? If we get out there and get hot, what should we do?

If we kind of maybe feel a little woozy because we've been out in the heat and we're not used to it, what would be my prescription? Well, again, you know, separate from the Explorer prescriptions, I would recommend that people look at what their local public health authorities are recommending as well as the Centers for Disease Control. We should all be drinking water and certainly seeking shade generally when it's really hot outside.

Is it still when you get really hot and everything, maybe some Pedialyte to help bring back the electrolytes and things like that? Well, that's one option. But again, I think probably looking at the recommendations from our regular authorities would be best for people. Perfect. All right. Doc, thank you for joining Let's Talk Wheels today. I hope you had fun. And I know we did. So we're going to look at fromtheroad.ford.com and we'll see more.

There's a site about some suggestions and things like that, right? Yes. Thank you, Mike. All right. That was Dr. Francesca Litto. She is Ford's medical director telling us to go out and have fun. And I agree with her a thousand percent. All right, folks, hang on. More Let's Talk Wheels coming up after this quick break. We'll be right back. Music. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to let's talk wheels here's mike herzing and jeremy bierenbaum, All right, Jeremy, we've got some car questions here, and one of them is, had a lady, Karen, she loves classic cars, but she realizes some are a lot more reliable than others, okay? And you out and buy a British sports car, you better not want to expect to drive it across country. No, or an Italian sports car, you know. But, you know, everybody talks about some of the best engines ever made.

GM small block, you know, a Ford Coyote, any of those. But I mean, how do you find a car that's classic, but in case I need to drive it to work or let's say I need to go somewhere with it, can I? What do you think? That's the problem I have with my 58 Ford. It wouldn't hardly go on the freeway. I'd get run over. Yeah, you know, what would you do? It really depends on what direction you want to go. Do you want a classic car that you can daily drive?

Do you want something maybe newer with some modern amenities that's also as reliable, maybe not as cool, maybe not as fun? How handsy you are. You know, I'm not talking about handsy with the men or ladies, but I mean, like, you know, with your car and fixing stuff and being able to repair things, you know, you go with something done in the 70s, 80s, 90s, you get fuel injection. Almost all the cars are going to have four-wheel disc brakes, at least front disc brakes.

There are some cool cars. You want to go before OBD2, which is like 96. If you want to stay classic, something you can mess around with. Yeah, something you can actually, if you had to switch the engine, or let's say I'm putting up a different carburetor on it, this or that, you want to get something that's before 96 that didn't have all the sensors. Yeah, exactly. And now, you know, with Leno's law out here in California, they're pushing the smog date newer.

So before everyone was looking pre-78 cars because of smog, but now I think they're going to include, I don't want to be quoted because I don't know. You go up to like 30 years. Yeah, I think it's a rolling date or something like that. Right, it's a rolling date. It's like if it's 30 years, so every year a different car gets eligible, but here it's 25 years. No emissions, no testing. It doesn't have to have... You know, it has to have no seat. Like my 46 Willis has no seat belts, Will.

Yeah, see, and if you're talking about daily driver, I want to have some of the safety, you know, mechanisms in place. And so that's why I'm stating out of the 50s and 60s, most of those cars are lap belts. You know, I want to get away from that if that's my goal. My sweet spot, personally, if I was going to do it where I know I could fix things, I'm looking 70s Ford or Chevy truck. I think you have a really cool platform, really blank slate.

You can add some of the modern amenities that I would personally need out here in California, like AC and make it work good. You don't really need power steering because you've got a big steering wheel. It's pretty easy to crank on. Well, most everything had power steering from the 70s. Yes, it did. I'm just talking everything. I mean, that's kind of nice. And it's, you know, the brakes are good. That's the big deal.

Expension's good. The AC will work. you know the car is designed for ac the problem you get is is with the braking system that mike and i are discussing it's not really on you it's all these modern cars that can just stop so much quicker and you get these people tailgating and they can stop on a dime and you can't and so that's the the worry yep it really is you know my my jeep the brakes are horrible but then again that's what it was in 1946 yeah they were horrible and and i'm thinking about

maybe up getting it to disc brakes but then again i might not i may just buy a mustang you know which is kind of what i want to do you know but i mean we're talking about bulletproof engines though you know volkswagen as well as you know some porsche motors you don't have to go crazy and spend a hundred thousand dollars to own a porsche um there's some really good cars you can get in the 30 to 60 thousand dollar range and those engines are built to

daily drive you know you have to do some maintenance and be on top of your valve adjustments and that sort of thing same with the volkswagen but pretty simple you know yeah but if somebody thinks they're going to go out and buy a 1971 or 72 or 3 or 4 or 5 or whatever jaguar and drive it across good luck and then when something breaks good luck finding someone that's can someone that can competently fix it and get parts yeah that's the other thing is yeah land rovers isn't anything

any of that stuff getting parts and pieces for these old cars, you know. Inevitably something's going to break and you're going to need something, you know, Volkswagen, Ford, Chevy, Toyota, all those are cars or parts are going to be plentiful. There's going to be good aftermarket upgrade parts. You know, I look at all those things when you want to get into something, you know, sometimes people come to me with the craziest ideas for these old cars and I go, that car looks beautiful, but right.

You know, You're battling so many different things in order to own this really interesting looking car. Right. You know, exactly. Right. I mean, I was looking the other day at an early 2000 or 1999 Chevy old style body truck. It was basically a short bed, regular cab. It had a V8 in it, 5.3. It was automatic, you know, had great brakes, great steering. I was like, man, this would be a great car. And somebody bought it before I

could get there. You know what I mean? It was just, that's a great vehicle to have. I could sit there and tow trailers. I can drive it across country and do all this stuff. It's exactly it's the perfect extra vehicle to have.

There's a lot of people that have cars and they have to need a truck every once in a while so it's nice to have an old truck just buy it and keep it you know and drive it you know what I mean, yeah exactly and I like the satisfaction you fix something you do something cool to it and then you go to start the engine and it starts up and you have a sense of pride in what you're, doing I think that's lost yeah no kidding You know, it makes a big difference.

So, folks, go out, and if you're looking at a classic car, take it out on the freeway. Say, you know, before you, let's say you get it, and you kind of like it, and you want to go have it and get it inspected or get it looked at, you know, do a pre-purchase inspection, which would be how they recommend. And that's all great. But then you're kind of like, go out there and drive it.

Say, does it drive the way you want it? Does it do it? I mean, I'd love a Shelby Cobra, but I can't fit in one very well. I barely fit in my Jeep. You know, everyone has to make compromises for what they want in a car. A lot of people see something they like and they just want to buy it because of the way it looks. And then they get in and they drive it and they go, this is not what I thought. I always tell people, go look for a car and drive it. It doesn't have to be the one you want to buy.

But it gives you that experience and say, did I get that out of me? Did I enjoy it? Or do I still want to continue down this path? Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think that's actually going to be a lot better. So folks, like you said, when you, when you go to look at these cars, Hey, before you, I highly recommend you get them inspected, but you know, when you get a classic car, me, a classic car is a 2000 mile over 25 years old. And so that's a classic car.

And, but if you can get it 96 before 96, it will have not have the OBD2. You have to worry about oxygen sensors or catalytic inverters or any of that kind of stuff. If they fail, you can just leave them. You know, and that's the best part about a little bit earlier. But they were still fuel injected. They still had good brakes. They still had good power steering. They still had a good cooling systems and all that kind of stuff. They're just designed much better.

So if I'm looking at a classic car that's actually you could take a trip in, maybe go Route 66 or something, unless you want to put lots of time in it and rebuild it, stay away from the British stuff, stay away from the German and Italian stuff, kick with American cars and or even imports, Japanese imports, I think you'd be in good shape. You know what I mean? Or Volkswagen. Air-cooled Volkswagen is always an easy thing to work on. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, definitely.

And they're pretty bulletproof. I mean, even when you get to the water-cooled, you know, Vanagans and whatnot, the parts are still affordable, everybody can work on, and they're reliable. Not that fast, but they're reliable. You're right. There's a lot of great cars out there that haven't become popular. You know, the Lexus H2. For some reason, it was a fun vehicle, but nobody wants them anymore. You can get deals on them. I don't even know what that is. There's certain vehicles

out there. H2, the big square hummer. Not the H1, the H2. You know, they got nine miles to a gallon. They were horrible. But it drove great and they were really fun. But there's great cars out there. We'll talk about this next week. How about that? We're going to go on to that. So if you guys have any questions, let us know. If you enjoyed our show, tune in to the station next week. And we'll have another episode of Let's Talk Wheels.

And if you missed part of the show, heaven forbid, you can catch the podcast on all major podcast platforms. Just search for Let's Talk Wheels. The podcast contains this show in a bonus segment with an extra car review, so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out. And it's free. 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'd love to hear all your car questions.

Absolutely. On behalf of Jeremy Bierenbaum, Matt Peralta, and myself, thank you for joining us today on the Talk Media Radio Network. I'm Mike Herzing. Have a great week. Hang on for a quick review from our reporter, Matt Burrell. See you next week. Music. Thanks for joining us on another edition of Let's Talk Wheels. We'll see you next week. The machine of a dream Such a clean machine All right, guys. This week I was driving a 2025 Hyundai Sonata in the N-Line front-wheel drive trim level.

Okay, let's start by just talking about, this vehicle surprising the heck out of me. So when you get into a Sonata and it's got a price tag, this vehicle is about $37,000, but you can get this thing stripped down to being, you know, if you want to go just straight base model on this vehicle, you can get it for under $30,000 if you really want it to. The base model, the SC trim level comes in with a sticker price of about $27,000. So I had the N-Line, which comes in, you know, $36,000, $37,000.

The vehicle performed way above expectation. Now, with a Hyundai in a Sonata, you expect a five-star safety rating, which this vehicle comes with, okay? So it's a very safe vehicle. You also expect it to be extremely fuel efficient, which on the highway, you're talking about 33, 34 miles per gallon. City-wise, pretty good too, 27, 28. But the thing that shocked me the most driving this vehicle was the performance of the N-line trim level.

This is a 2.5 liter turbo four-cylinder engine that cooks. I mean, cooks. I was stunned. I am somebody who puts almost every vehicle into sport mode, and I want to see what the vehicle does.

I go ahead and say, all right, let's drop it in there. it is worth it the 290 horsepower it is worth it if you can afford the n-line it is worth it it is a fun vehicle to drive i really really liked it it's been a pick of a lot of folks who have reviewed it and and in this sort of you know upper upper 20s mid 30s type of level where i'm not going to call it an entry level luxury car but it's a vehicle that is a great commuter vehicle that you can add some bells and whistles to.

I know the fact that it's not an all-wheel drive vehicle has bothered some people. They say, you know, this vehicle would be much different if it was an all-wheel drive vehicle. It's not. It's a front-wheel drive vehicle. But I didn't have any problem with it. And mostly it's because of where I live. I live in Las Vegas. So, I mean, it snows once every two years. I'm not really worried about snow. So if you are someone living in a colder climate, maybe that will come into play here.

But, man, it is fun. It is quick off the line it is good on gas i i was really impressed i i i gotta admit i i was expecting something much different and and these are the type of vehicles that i wind up going and having conversations with people about that i know they're in the market to buy vehicles and i'm like hey i know you're looking at x have you looked at the sonata and you might go and i don't i'm saying look at from a commuter car perspective,

I would absolutely have no, no trouble driving this vehicle every day as a commuter car, feeling safe, great gas mileage. And for the performance of this vehicle, it's got the end unique leather wrapped steering wheel and the trims around the end of the front. And you've got the rear and you have a dual twin exhaust outlet in the back, which looks really sporty and really pretty cool. Panoramic sunroof is awesome. Big. You know, very, very needed in a lot of ways.

I think it does open the air up. It gives you kind of an open, more open feel to the vehicle. Wireless phone charging, which is awesome. And then you've got the 12.3 inch touchscreen and you've got the instrument cluster that's right there as well. And these are things that just are really nice to have. The Bose premium audio with a 12 speaker sound system is something that I loved in this vehicle.

I came away going, man, And this for a price tag in the mid 30s, if you can get this down to 35, you probably can to negotiate. Great bang for the buck. Great performance. A lot of fun to get behind the wheel. Your proximity key entry with push button start. Again, these are things I'm all about. Give me a push button start. I'm looking for this. I love it. The safety features, the blind spot collision warning in your rear cross traffic collision avoidance, which are both really nice to have.

Your rear camera, which is crystal clear. to be able to see what's around you, which is really nice to have with that. And then you get the warranty. You come with, you know, with a Hyundai, which is a five-year, 60,000-mile new vehicle warranty and a 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty.

If you're looking for a sedan, and not everyone looks for sedans, and I understand that sedans, people love SUVs, but if you want a car and looking for a car that's safe, that's fun, and if you can get the N-line trim level, a hundred percent. I mean, a hundred percent it's there for that conversation to have. So check it out. Test drive it. The 2025 Sonata N-line in the front wheel drive.