Clutch Culture Podcast Nov 28, 2025

1 Year Podiversary, Car Talk, Black Friday, Answering Your Questions & More

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72:08

Car

Land Rover Defender

The Land Rover Defender is a tough SUV that's great for off-roading. There's a new version made for racing, which shows how it can be used in sports as well as regular driving.

Car

The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR is a very expensive and rare sports car that was built for racing. It's special because there are only a few of them, and they are known for being incredibly fast and luxurious.

Car

Kia Telluride

The Kia Telluride is a popular SUV known for being roomy and having lots of features. It's a good choice for families and has received high safety scores.

Car

Hyundai Palisade

The Hyundai Palisade is a family-friendly SUV with a lot of space and features. It's designed to be comfortable for passengers and has many safety options.

Car

Toyota LS 400

The Toyota LS 400 is a luxury car that helped Toyota become known for making high-quality vehicles. It was popular in the U.S. and changed how people viewed Toyota's brand.

Car

Toyota Corollas

The Toyota Corolla is a small car that many people buy because it's dependable and gets good gas mileage. It's very popular around the world.

Car

Toyota GX550

The Toyota GX550 is a fancy SUV that can handle rough terrains and is comfortable for driving. It's often used for adventures where you go off the beaten path.

Term

financing

When you finance a car, you're borrowing money to buy it and paying it back over time. Until you finish paying, the bank technically owns the car, not you.

Car

Jeep Gladiator

The Jeep Gladiator is a truck that can go off-road and has a space in the back for carrying things, like tools or camping gear. It's popular because it can handle rough terrain while still being useful for everyday tasks.

Car

Porsche 911 GT3

The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special version of the 911 sports car that is built for performance and racing. It's known for being very fast and fun to drive, making it popular with car lovers.

Car

Mazda Miata

The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a small sports car that's fun to drive and not too expensive. Many people like it because it's easy to handle and gives a great driving experience.

Car

Jaguar Ftype

The Jaguar F-Type is a stylish sports car that looks great and drives fast. It's a luxury car that many people admire for its design and performance.

Car

Mazda MX-5 Miata

The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a small sports car that is fun to drive and not too expensive. Many people enjoy taking it to the racetrack or driving it on weekends.

Car

Ford Raptor

The Ford Raptor is a special version of the Ford F-150 truck that is built for off-road driving. It has stronger parts and a more powerful engine to handle rough terrain better than regular trucks.

Car

Toyota Tundra

The Toyota Tundra is a big truck made by Toyota that is great for carrying heavy loads and towing. It's known for being dependable and has a lot of space inside for passengers and cargo.

Car

Ford Gen 2 Lightning

The Ford Gen 2 Lightning is a special version of the Ford F-150 truck that was made for speed and performance. It has a powerful engine and a sporty look, making it popular among truck enthusiasts.

Car

Ram

Ram trucks are popular vehicles that many people use for work because they are powerful and reliable.

Term

EcoBoost

EcoBoost engines are Ford's engines that use turbocharging to save fuel while still providing good power. Some of these engines have had problems, which is why they are mentioned here.

Car

Ford F-150 Raptor

The Ford F-150 Raptor is a tough truck made for driving off-road. It has a strong engine and special features that help it handle rough terrain better than regular trucks.

Car

Nissan Titans

The Nissan Titan is another large truck that can handle tough jobs and has strong engines.

Car

Chevrolet Avalanche

The Chevrolet Avalanche is a type of vehicle that can carry both passengers and cargo. It has a truck bed for hauling things and also a comfortable area for people to sit.

Car

Ford F-250

The Ford F-250 is a tough truck that can carry heavy loads and is often used for work or towing things like trailers. It's built to handle more than regular trucks.

Term

leaf springs

Leaf springs are metal parts that help hold up a vehicle and make the ride smoother by bending when the car goes over bumps. They're often used in trucks because they can carry heavy loads.

Car

Ford Excursion

The Ford Excursion is a big SUV that was made in the early 2000s. It's known for being roomy and good for towing things, which makes it a favorite for some people.

Car

Chevrolet Tahoe

The Chevrolet Tahoe is a large SUV that can carry a lot of people and cargo. It's often used by families or for towing things like boats or trailers.

Term

price histories

Price histories show how much a car has cost in the past. This information can help you know if a car is a good deal or if its price has gone up or down over time.

Car

LX 470

The LX 470 is a fancy SUV made by Toyota. It's known for being comfortable and good for off-road driving, which makes it a popular choice for many people.

Car

Chevrolet Silverados

The Chevrolet Silverado is a big truck that many people use for work or to carry their families. It's known for being tough and reliable.

Concept

GMT-800 platform

The GMT-800 platform is the base design that many GM trucks and SUVs were built on. It helped make these vehicles strong and popular during that time.

Car

Toyota GX

The Toyota GX is a fancy SUV that can handle rough roads but also feels nice to drive. It's known for being dependable and holds its value well.

Car

I got the clutch culture hoodie on.

Rob, especially, Rob did the heavy lifting on this.

Available at hypercleanestore.com.

15% off.

BF-15.

We'll do BF-15 at checkout.

Welcome to 102.3, the jam.

All right, we're coming to everybody officially

on the one-year pot-aversary of clutch culture.

Nick, hello.

Congratulations.

How are you?

You too, man.

Congratulations.

Everything's going good.

Family in town.

We got everything going on here.

Dude, same, same, same.

As a matter of fact, I didn't even

tell this, Nick, before we started recording,

but I feel like we should actually drop this on Friday

as people are going into the holiday weekend instead

of Monday.

Would you agree with that?

Do you think that's a good idea?

How about everybody vote?

No, I'm just kidding.

Well, yeah, I'm good with whatever, man.

OK, cool.

I think it's just a good time to have people.

Because a lot of times when you're shopping and stuff,

I always have, like, if I'm forced to go out

with a wife, because I'm not necessarily going to be

the one going out ever to do anything like this,

put in a podcast, put in some music,

and you're good to go, right?

Yeah, I think that's always a win.

So if you're new to the show, and this is your first time

hearing this, welcome to the number one car

culture-related podcast on planet Earth.

This is officially one year.

And if you have been here for the long haul,

we appreciate you.

We talk about trends.

We talk about news.

We talk about market predictions.

But more importantly, we offer you a good hang

every single Monday.

Or in this case, if we agree to it afterwards, on Friday.

Speaking of, dude, let's just get into some questions.

We've got stories.

And if there's time, we'll get back to more questions.

That's a Simpsons reference.

Chief Wiggum.

Love, Chief Wiggum.

We're going to break you down, build you back up, go to lunch.

And if there's time, we'll build you back up later.

Look, we had a question to start with,

which I think is just like an obvious one

that a lot of people are going to be wondering.

Do you guys actually wait for Black Friday

to purchase anything online?

Yeah, I mean, this is one of the things that we've,

you and I have talked about behind the scenes.

Black Friday has morphed into this thing.

We're now, it's like Black Friday month.

Yeah.

It's Black Friday, you know, two months.

I just think it's wherever you're trying to shop

and wherever they start to decide to run a deal.

I mean, we're so far from normal Black Friday deals,

it's pretty insane, no?

Yeah, I know.

And then every year, too, you see those accounts

that post the nostalgic kind of videos

from the 90s and early 2000s, where it's people at the mall,

feels like it's a real familial time.

It feels like everybody's kind of coming together

at the store, getting together, Santa Claus photos.

And then it cuts to today, and it's just dark gray.

No one's at the malls, and everybody's just

at home on their computer.

I'm like, oh, it's cool.

Yeah, and I would ask you this.

Here's one of the weird things.

And I don't know how everybody else does it,

but I think this would be an interesting thing

to just see people's habits.

It's almost now like, what did I get in my email box?

Maybe some of the manufacturers and people I follow

maybe send a text message.

But I think it's happening so widely

in so many different times of the month of November.

I mean, I even knew people at the end of October

who's maybe business was struggling or whatever.

That's the way I take it anyway.

They're running it from the last week of October

all the way to something else,

all the way through December 15th or whatever.

So I think it's lost its luster as this,

like you said, almost gathering time of,

let's find some stuff that we wanna buy.

And I actually think that's kind of a shame

because I think you could really create it

into something special again,

but now it's just a free for all, it feels like.

It is, and so to go to the listener questions

or shout out Kyle for asking this,

is there anything that you,

maybe you don't plan for it, but maybe you do.

Do you listeners wanna know,

do you plan for anything around Black Friday?

Or is it like, if I need it at the time,

this is a good time to buy it,

big, small, automotive house?

Like is there anything you're actually looking forward to

around this time of the year?

Yeah, I'm real, I'm right now,

I need to get an air compressor for the shop.

That's gonna happen on Black this weekend.

Looking at some tools you and I are talking about,

we actually got another partner coming on board

we solidified this week, American made stuff

that we're pretty excited about.

But yeah, I think for me personally at this point in my life,

it is a lot of, if I can get 20% off a big ticket,

television, if you can get it,

whatever it is, mine would be more big ticket

at this point in my life.

Yeah, we got some, so we're getting,

are you a home gym kind of guy?

People were actually asking, I remember a question,

like what does Nick do to work out

because it seems like he's always working.

That was just such a random question.

Buddy, I do have a pretty extensive home gym.

Yes, I've never asked you that,

but I was curious too,

but I kind of just forgot about it.

So for people that don't know,

I invested some money in a gym,

I mean, now it's 15 years ago.

Many moons ago.

And I have a lot of very nice equipment.

You have that equipment from that gym?

Well, I mean, not the whole, I mean, it was a huge gym.

Yeah, man, I have techno gym stuff.

Oh.

Yeah, no, here's where I'm at with the working out thing.

Tell me.

Okay, and I want to let everybody,

because we do get these questions.

Yeah.

If you can do it at your house,

especially when you reach a certain busyness and age,

that's your best case scenario of getting something done.

Agreed.

Right, like I still love,

and the way I grew up is I love the gym culture.

The problem is like one of the biggest gym chains,

I know the owners, they're real big on the West Coast.

I know those guys very well personally.

So literally I could walk into lots of gyms in Las Vegas

and not like be on the hook for a membership.

And still I go there and I'm like,

wow, there's a lot of people here.

And I'm to the point where the drive there,

the drive home or the showering

or at the place going to where it just doesn't fit.

So home gym is really,

I don't think people need to go crazy either.

Like I'm a big pull up bar, push up,

that kind of thing is like good enough.

I'm not trying to push up 315 anymore.

Like that's not really my thing.

You gave up your J-Color days?

No more trying to like max out on deadlift and squat.

Yeah, I mean, we do get a lot of these questions.

I mean, I just think there's a lot of,

and I do tell people we have a mountain right,

butts up right to my house,

a weighted vest and walking up the mountain.

It's a pretty good workout.

You know, for me, I just get to the point where,

and I hope all of you take something from this,

like I don't think you need to go crazy for a home gym.

You know, that's the other thing.

I have a lot of friends that they want to get a home gym

and they start pricing and they go,

wow, fitness equipment's expensive.

It's like, yeah, man, I don't think you need all that.

You know, like you're a dad of three, you know,

and you just need to get some work in.

So yeah, I'm more like body weight, weighted vest,

you know, type of guy at this point.

I try to stay away from, I mean,

couple shoulder surgeries will put the heavy weights

off the agenda.

You have a good reason, though, you know,

like I'm sure if you didn't have those shoulder surgeries,

you'd be with your buddies like, all right,

how much is leg press?

Can I get a hacksaw machine too, you know?

Yeah, no, I loved it, man.

You know, and for anybody out there,

like I still think one of the greatest things

is like gym culture as a whole,

getting in with a good group and whatever,

but and if you're 20 years old, that's a no brainer.

You know, you're 25 years old, don't have a lot of,

go to the gym.

Yeah, for sure.

You meet cool people.

Cool people, probably your future wife

if we're being honest.

Yeah, yeah, and it's a great place to meet somebody.

Great place.

You know, so I really feel like what I tell people is

it's all age dependent and I actually would take that,

even looking back at my 20s,

I would have done everything the same way, right?

So I think that's the time to go and get into the gym culture

and get deep into that world and have a good time

with it, learn a little bit about,

push yourself a little bit.

Now, I really like having home gym.

I mean, I got gymnastics rings, I have everything.

Do you have turf in there by chance?

What's that?

Do you have turf?

Any kind of like, where you doing that?

No, I don't have turf.

I have like zebra mats.

I have zebra mats in my gym.

So I work out barefoot, you know, I don't,

which if you don't have zebra mats,

you can get other mats at Costco or whatever, they're fine.

You know, I just happen to have some left over.

No, no, no, zebra mats are the ones.

Those are the ones you really want to have.

If you're going to be working out barefoot or rolling

or training, you know, struditsu or wrestling

or anything, those are the best mats.

So, and really my kids, the best part about it is

like gymnastics rings, your kids are hanging on them.

You know, I got, you know,

dip bars and all that kind of stuff.

So my kids can goof around in there.

Like I got kettlebells,

set of like the power block adjustable dumbbells.

Dude, that's on my list, adjustable dumbbells.

I really need to set.

Yeah, the power blocks, look man,

I've had them for a very long time.

They do last, I'll give them that.

By the way, I never talked about this on clutch culture,

but your boy, I got a kettlebell certified

by Steve Maxwell himself.

Mr. Kettle.

Hey dude, a jiu-jitsu for life.

Jiu-jitsu for life, that's right.

We, I got certified, we were rolling

in between the kettlebell classes

and Homeboy farted on me on accident.

You know, he's an older gentleman.

Yeah.

And it was a funny,

It was the funniest thing because he just didn't skip a beat.

He just kept rolling.

It was like, that happens.

He just kept going.

It was so funny.

But he's deep in the Gracie lineage.

I saw that he's going to be doing some type of,

you know, long interview on some type

of documentary they're doing.

Don't, don't, don't get it, don't get it wrong.

Don't get it wrong.

What the fuck am I trying to say?

I'm not sure about this,

but I think he's one of the first dirty dozen,

which was one of the first 12 of black belts.

I think on the Gracie lineage.

But yeah, dude, super cool.

There's also so much like good content

from those old school like jiu-jitsu guys out there now,

which is so cool to watch.

Yeah, if you ever want like an at home workout,

Steve Maxwell did some videos.

I still have him saved somewhere.

Yeah, I have all my,

I think I still have all my curriculum.

Like it was a dude who's a hellacious weekend,

by the way, and then we'll get to car talk.

But like it's, it was literally eight hours for two days

and nothing but kettle will work.

And at the end of it,

he puts you through the most hellacious like final test.

And I was so close to not making it,

but in my mind, I had like this Tim Grover,

you know, character in my mind,

like Michael Jackson.

Tim Grover, that's funny.

Hey, that's a deep cut.

Dude, have you read relentless, by the way?

Of course.

Okay, I figured.

And if you haven't, by the way,

huge suggestion, I highly recommend you read relentless

and just or anything that Tim Grover's ever done.

And it just had him in my head.

This was like 10 years ago and I'm like,

I'm not gonna stop.

I just plowed through.

Hey, dude, that sounds hard.

Yeah, I can imagine.

Yeah, it was crazy.

All right, we have a lot of car news,

believe it or not, is Black Friday weekend.

It is Thanksgiving,

but still a lot going on in the world.

I got to start with saying,

have you seen Land Rover's new Defender race car?

No, let me check it out.

Hey, did you see your boy from the drug Kingpin?

They, they...

Oh, in Canada?

The $13 million CLK GTR.

Well, I'll bring that one up next.

Since you brought it up,

I'm so glad you knew about that

because what a crazy story.

I don't know how this,

am I like the only guy that doesn't know how this

happened?

They just like put the story out and I'm like, huh?

Yeah, I know, right?

They're calling them like the next El Chapo

or something like that.

I'm like, how are we just hearing about this guy?

So I'm pulling up here for watching on YouTube.

Land Rover's new Defender race car,

145 gallon gas tank and flight mode for jumps.

Look at this thing.

Hey, they went to a Houston wrap shop.

I hope that's a compliment.

Love the camo.

They're in the dunes, in the desert.

It looks so good.

They did a good job on the Defender, man.

Am I design wise?

I don't want people freaking out.

Tell me about the engine and the drivetrain.

Relax.

Oh dude, speaking of,

because it's kind of in the same family.

Man, did people get upset at the key?

I called it the tell you Rover.

I think I called it in last week's episode.

And people were like, you don't understand

how the sales are doing.

If you drove it, it would be better

than any kind of luxury vehicle.

I think this is a good time to talk about this.

Let's.

And share with the listeners.

The comment sections of any subject on the planet.

Okay.

Really shows you why people get taken advantage of

in the automotive industry.

Well said.

Okay.

Nobody is arguing that Kia and Hyundai

haven't done a good job in their segment.

They're one of the, let's say,

top three to four largest auto manufacturers globally.

Nobody was talking about that.

And now you see why people walk on a dealership lot

and they get taken advantage of

because they say to themselves, look how nice this is.

Now, let me tell you why I have a different perspective

because I have people that bring me a Palisade

or a tell you ride and the interior is falling apart.

I'm not doing a test drive.

I am seeing one year down the road.

I'm also seeing they're on their second engine.

There is the perspective difference.

So there's a really good way that somebody,

I heard it on a podcast and these are,

this is what makes podcasts so powerful,

is a CIA agent who's spent his whole life

reading people goes.

Most people go through life with nothing

but a perception on things.

And that's what we see in the automotive world.

You watch something from an automotive media member

and they tell you how nice to tell you right is

and how nice the Palisade is,

which by the way, when you first get in them,

they're impressive.

You go, oh, this company's come a long way.

That's a perception because you drove it

for a little bit.

A perspective would be,

what is that car gonna be two years down the road?

So my perspective is,

I can show you some neighbors I have.

I can show you people that have come to me

trying to get out of their deals.

I can show you all these things.

I can show you dash pieces cracking in 2025.

I can show you seats tearing quicker

than any car that's been built.

That doesn't mean I don't think

that you should pass by the dealership

and not test drive it.

You should be aware that just because

they're saying that all these things through design,

quote, unquote, are really, really elevated,

it doesn't mean that they are when you live with the car.

And that's what you see in the comments section

and what I wanna say to people is,

I had somebody say, go drive the Palisade

and go drive a Honda and see which one's nicer.

Okay.

I'm not saying that you won't get in a Palisade and go,

wow, this has got a lot more bells and whistles

than the Honda for the same price.

I never said that.

Right.

I will say that largely I don't have people coming in

a year later with a Honda saying,

look at all the interior parts that are disintegrating.

That really hasn't happened in my career.

I'm not saying that they don't have some flaws

in the interior and things that have fallen apart

if you own one.

I'm saying these car companies like Hyundai and Kia

are putting lipstick on things without really fixing

the quality issues that have been apparent in those brands

for the last 35 to 40 years.

It's so funny you bring this up.

Or 20 years or 15 years

or whatever timeframe you wanna use.

So we had a team call earlier

and now we're doing the podcast same day.

So early, early this morning,

I had this video come across my feed

that, again, not related to the topics of today

or even Nick bringing this up,

but it's a shout out to performance overlooks.

I would pull it up, but it's a really long video.

So if you later wanna play it, I'll play it.

But the guy's an engineer essentially,

kind of like yourself, knows what he's talking about.

And the title of the video is

Why I love the car community.

I was like, oh, why does he love the car community

in my mind, right?

Because I just saw the steal.

And as soon as he get into it,

he's like, I love the car community, right?

Because when you go and you tell somebody

you've done every possible experiment,

on track, off track about X, Y, Z part of a car

and you explain to the audience why this is good,

why this is not.

The first thing you're gonna see is a know it all.

And then all the other know it all is behind them,

right? And it was a great video.

And all of his, you know, all of his content

is kind of like that where the guy just,

he tests and tests and tests, uses his engineering mind,

why these brakes are good, why these aren't,

you know, slotted and drilled, outdated.

You're being kind of, you know, not coerced,

but I guess in a way, like you're just being convinced

that these things are better.

I'll tell you why they're not.

But yet in the comments, everybody else is right.

Everybody else is right and you're wrong.

And it's a similar kind of thing

because we've seen it for a year now.

So 12 months officially, one year.

It's fascinating.

Also how poetic is it, Nick?

That last year, you know, we do the fiery dump,

we go viral shortly after and come full circle,

a same similar topic is on the verge

of being another one of those viral videos,

which is the Toyota subject.

Yeah, so we started talking about

how special the V8 was to the Toyota brand.

We cut up some clips and people go,

no, it's the four cylinder, it's a six cylinder.

Guys, the LS 400 changed Toyota forever.

Period. In America.

What you guys experience globally,

if you're listening to us, you have to understand,

I don't know every experience you've had globally.

I don't live there.

So you might have a completely different experience than us

and I'm okay with that.

You might be right.

The 70 series is a big deal outside of the US.

We don't have it.

I can't sit here and tell you

how it changed the culture in America.

It wasn't here, right?

It wasn't a part of our culture.

The LS 400 drops for Toyota

and everybody goes,

look at the engineering chops of this company.

Oh my God, I can't believe what they did.

And then they kept building on the halo

of that in their brand, okay?

That doesn't mean they didn't sell millions more

of the four or the six cylinder, I gotcha.

But you gotta understand a big picture of the time

when a lot of Americans were still leery

of buying a Japanese vehicle.

They didn't know what you know today.

Again, perspective versus perception.

I get it, they sell a lot of Corollas, man.

You got me.

Does anybody think it's a special brand

because of the Corolla?

You guys aren't in our comments going,

I can't wait to go buy a Corolla.

But it's a great car.

I've driven a Corolla from Vegas

to San Diego for a family member.

I enjoyed it because I didn't even have

to really fill the tank up.

And when I did it was like 23 bucks.

It was pretty comfortable.

Only car in your fleet ever

to get something under $100.

Wasn't even in my fleet.

That's the problem.

I'm doing a favor.

In your fleet for the day.

Yeah, and by the way, I had no problem driving it.

I was like, ah, for this price, pretty good car.

You know what?

I'm feeling compelled to just because of all

of the Toyota love throughout the last 12 months,

I almost feel obligated for my next purchase

to be a Toyota, where I think Nick might feel

the opposite sentiment because of the comment section.

Yes.

Nick's like, I'm gonna sell this election.

You know what?

Forget this platform.

And the funny part is, you know,

the reason we share this, it's Thanksgiving.

It's basically a year since we started recording.

I've learned a hell of a lot in a year.

Oh, I mean, it's probably been one

of the most informative years of my career.

And I've been in cars a long time.

And I'm really thankful for that, by the way,

for everybody.

But the problem is what I thought was going on is true.

Just like you said about this video

you watched this morning.

This know-it-all culture is costing people

billions of dollars every year.

Whether that's at a mechanic or lack of a mechanic,

if that's at a body shop, if that's at a dealership.

This thinking you know what you're talking about

when you've never done anything professionally

in the car world is like me saying,

I know how to run a restaurant.

You guys would think I'm crazy.

Cause I would be crazy to do that.

To go on a guy who's showing you

how to run a restaurant and be in the comment section,

well, you know, tomatoes, you'd be like,

why are you in the comment section?

But the car world has normalized it.

They've normalized the backyard guy,

the backyard gal acting as if they're as knowledgeable

as the oil geek who literally made oil for a living

that you know more than him.

I just don't know why you would do that.

But that is what costs everybody all of this money.

Delusion is a hell of a drug.

And I have a note in my phone called car insights.

And I always add reels and stories and things

that I think will, you know, noteworthy

to later talk about either on an episode

or even just in a chat that Nick and I

might have during the week.

And a lot of weeks and weeks back,

Nick and I were talking on the phone.

I think it was either before or after a podcast.

And it was something to the effect of like,

as the podcast was growing and still is growing

or just like the industry at large is growing,

it's growing in a different direction

because we always talk about how 10 years ago,

15 years ago, it's a completely different world.

And we kind of felt like we were starting

to be on the other side of something.

I don't know if you remember,

I'm sure you remember this conversation.

And some of the videos that I've seen recently,

I wrote it in my insights, my insights note,

probably five days ago.

And I'm starting to, and it's literally

as you're talking, it's kind of coming to me right now

that we're on the other side of this world

that we've been talking about for a year

where people are more widely acknowledging

the things that we're saying now,

like outside of our pot,

like maybe they don't listen to us obviously,

they're just making their own car videos.

And it's the regular dudes and girls

that are literally like, wait a minute,

they're rubbing their eyes like,

oh, this is all like make believe, it's that meme.

We're like, wow, it's the land of make believe, right?

And they're literally coming to themselves

being like, car culture isn't real on the internet.

Nobody builds cars that they like.

They just want to one up each other

and just buy the next thing.

They're not building anything.

They're not making things that they like.

They're just building things

that they think the internet's gonna like

and so on and so forth.

And I think we've been on the other side of that now

for a year.

And prior to doing the podcast,

we had the same sentiment in our real lives

before we started recording stuff.

And now that I've said this,

I think you're gonna see a lot more of these videos

because I just constantly see it, man.

People are just like, they are not,

a fed up isn't even the right phrase.

I think they're-

It's not really, I agree, it's not really yet.

It's just sort of tired.

Yeah, fatigued almost as a word.

So I'll tell you something that really frustrates me

and that frustration turns to,

I feel really bad for people.

I had a guy on one of our overlanding videos

about the GX550 go,

this I can't do overlanding

because I can't afford things like this.

And he was serious.

And if he's listening, I want you to know,

I loved your comment and I loved your responses.

And I go, that's just not true.

There's people that buy gladiators,

use gladiators for $15,000,

drop 5,000 and they're out on the trail

for, you know, $19,000, $20,000.

Well, all of the equipment is so expensive.

Yeah, man, if you want to buy the best of the best

in any world, that costs a lot of money.

But that doesn't mean you can't go have an experience.

That's where car culture on the internet's lied to you.

Most of these guys are financing the cars,

number one, they don't actually own them.

In some cases, the sponsors are buying the cars

and you're unaware of that.

There's another little dirty secret,

which by the way, great for them.

But you don't know that that's happening.

So you feel like, well, if I go buy that gladiator,

that's not as cool as the GX550, why not?

It's what you can afford.

This is always about get in where you fit in at the moment.

And guess what, you'll do better in your career,

you'll get better at whatever you do,

you'll age a little bit and then you'll be the guy

buying the GX550 and wrecking it in the trails.

And you'll be like, isn't this great?

But 23 years old, nobody hardly

has ever been able to buy the top of the top

and the elite of the elite.

And so what we've done is while car culture's bigger

on the internet, it's shrunk outside of that.

Because people go, why can't buy a McLaren,

so why would I buy a sports car?

They say this to themselves

because we see it in the comments.

This isn't me making something up,

we've gotten those comments, like, well,

I mean, I can't afford a GT3, so what's the point?

I don't know, there's like 8,000 cars you could buy

that are a hell of a lot of fun.

And you're just at the point where you're at, that's all.

So we've lost this, everything is a step

towards something else, right?

And that, for all of you out there,

again, the clutch culture year comes down to

I want you to feel this, buy what you can buy.

And who cares about the rest of it?

Who cares what somebody's doing on the internet?

Who cares what I think is cool?

It's not my car, right?

That's what's so funny about the Toyota fanboys.

I own more Toyotas than any of those guys commenting,

guaranteed.

Yeah.

I've put my money where my mouth is,

I have the experience, you don't.

I know I've owned more than 99% of people

walk in the earth, and you guys still think,

as fanboys, you know them better

than the guy that's owned 10X, which you've owned.

That'd be like me saying, you know,

I got clients that own 100 cars in their car collection.

I know what it's like to own those.

No, I don't, I never foot the bill.

Now I see the bills and I can tell you what this cost,

but the experience of cutting the check,

I don't have that.

I just see the checks.

I just see what it costs.

I just do the numbers, right?

So I have a little bit of an ancillary experience

to these guys, but there's people that will tell me

about car collections that never have seen

a single finance number from running a car collection.

But I want everybody to hear this from us constantly.

Get in where you fit in.

There's something cool in your price range to buy.

And if it ain't cool, make it cool.

That's the big thing, right?

If it ain't cool, make it cool.

Yes.

And I felt for that guy, he's like,

well, you know, I just can't go on the trails,

they can go on BS.

I guarantee you there's something in your price range.

And yeah, man, there may be a little bit

of a headache to it.

You may have to replace a radiator, two or five

or whatever, I don't know.

You could have some problems.

But so did the guy who owns the GX550 now.

When he first started, he had the same problems you have.

Same ones.

Couldn't afford what he wanted.

Had to get something.

That's how he got into it.

I mean, that's just the nature of the beast.

And that's why I've said I've learned more

in the last year because I didn't realize

how many people were sitting on the sidelines

going, I can't afford this elite level thing.

So I'm not going to buy anything.

Yeah, and that maybe shows you why some people

don't buy a Miata as a sports car.

Well, that's not a McLaren.

Well, nobody said it was, but it's what you can afford.

Yeah, famously, one of the hosts of Throttle House,

he had a Jaguar F-Type, right?

Love those cars, which by the way,

one of the ones you can get now for like 40 grand,

by the way, great car.

He ended up selling it for a Miata.

It was just more enjoyable.

It was more of the kind of car that he wanted to,

you know, take on the weekends of the track,

a daily drive or whatever,

because that's what was cool to him.

And that's what made his life fulfilled or whatever.

So it is kind of just buy what you can afford.

And also like, it doesn't have to be

the last thing you have, right?

We know it's not going to be

the last thing you're going to have.

No, it's not.

And in the moment, for some reason,

a lot of people always feel like, well, this thing,

even if you do end up keeping it your whole life,

it doesn't mean you're going to not have

something else along with it.

So back to what you were saying,

like getting where you fit in

and the internet's kind of fed you a lie

for a long time.

You know, after a year of doing the show,

we've started to work with a couple of people

slowly on the behind the scenes.

And the reason I think is that like,

like, look, if we have a video,

which we've had several now that have

reached a million plus views,

we'd be lucky to get 1% of those people

that understand the larger picture

of the overall conversation we've been having for a year

or even in that one hour podcast.

It's just not that many people

in the large scheme of things as we do more

that population will grow if people don't understand it.

But I mean, at the end of the day,

if we didn't, you know, not if,

when we do this another year and beyond,

it's gonna be like 1% of a million, 1% of them,

if we're lucky and then eventually

have a huge audience that understands it.

Right now it is large, but man,

when you see some of the comments

in the comment section, you're like,

there's no way this ever breaks through to,

you know, the masses, but it's just a slow process.

Yeah, and the other thing is,

I'm not saying any of this to complain.

It's been great for me.

Oh, it's been awesome.

You know, it's been great for me to learn

and see what I thought in my small bubble,

you know, of my world that I've developed

as a business to see that a lot of the things

that I was seeing is really the problematic stuff

is, you know, guys and gals walking on a dealership lot

and having no idea what to do,

but convinced that they know what they're doing, you know,

and I watched that for a lot of years in my business

and I always felt horrible when somebody brought me a deal

and I had to go, hey man,

this is just gonna cost a lot of money to get out of

and their head kind of slouches down

and they slouch down in the chair

and you go, the numbers are the numbers, right?

But that starts from thinking,

you know what you're doing when you don't.

You know, I follow guys like the car care nut

and all these guys that we say all the time to you guys

that like, hey man, they're doing good stuff.

Doesn't mean I agree with every word anybody says.

That's not the world.

But if you listen to those people, forget Rob and Nick,

if you listen to people that you know

have been doing it a long time at a high level,

you can pick up a lot of things that help you,

but you can't pick up anything if you go,

wow, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

I don't know, man.

People are sending every Toyota and Lexus to this guy

from out of state on the planet.

He can't build a big enough garage.

I'd say he's probably pretty good at what he does.

I mean, call me nuts.

They'll call you nuts.

You know what else you can pick up right now?

Can we get an RVD with that hoodie on?

Hey, look at the clutch culture hoodie, Rob.

Let's go.

So I got the clutch culture hoodie on Rob,

especially Rob did the heavy lifting on this.

Available at hypercleanstore.com, 15% off.

BF15, we'll do BF15 at checkout.

Welcome to 102.3, the jam.

So go pick up a hoodie.

We got a limited number of them.

If they're popular enough, guys, we'll restock on them.

We love having stuff out there,

but I'll say it's a soft hoodie.

It's a soft hoodie.

I got to place my order for one

because I didn't leave one behind for myself,

so I got to place an order along with other stuff.

You don't get to use the code.

We put that on your code.

No code for Rob.

By the way, it's store-wide, by the way,

and everything else you want to pick up along the way

at hypercleanstore.com, whether it's eco one,

like I said, I love to do for the rinse list.

I've had too many car trips back and forth,

so I got to whip out the pressure washer next time

and wash the car.

So let me get that.

And I was gonna say, and I've said it before,

because I've never done it,

do you trust my abilities in polishing my own car?

Yes.

Okay, so if you have the right machine,

it's very safe, it's hard to mess up

to the point of non-fixable,

which is what's the most important.

Right.

So if I pick up the liquid elements polish

that you guys carry, you think I could,

I won't screw it up?

Yes, no question.

If I screw it up, will you pay for it to fix it?

I will not.

That we do not take any, no exchanges,

Rob, no exchanges.

No responsibility to take it on hyperclean site.

So, great hoodie, and it's just the start of us

trying to put out stuff that we'd want to wear

so everybody knows how I operate.

If I won't wear it, if I won't use it, we don't carry it.

Yeah, it's true.

That's, my team can vouch for that.

I don't do the whole, that's good enough.

It's like, if I don't wear it, if I don't use it,

we're not gonna put it in our store.

And so everything that you guys ever see

at hyperclean store, I'll use or it won't be there.

Yeah, which by the way,

call back again to Tim Grover.

Read the book, you'll know exactly who Nick is

in the book once you're done reading it.

Cleaner, closer, you'll figure it out.

Think you'll know right away.

All right, we got a couple of questions too.

We do got stories and more questions.

Let me toggle back here.

So we talked about the gym equipment.

That is also what I'm looking to buy this Black Friday.

That is about it.

I got a new freezer,

because I got some dude, the Wagyu, the steaks,

the meat, all that kind of stuff.

Was running out of space in the house.

I finally got a deep freezer.

We were just about time.

One of the best investments ever

is having a freezer in your garage.

Make the space.

If you say you don't have space for it,

make the space for a freezer.

Yeah, so everybody knows my role here is I go local.

Yes.

Meaning like, I don't mean local to like Vegas,

but I buy from farmers.

Same.

I know we get that question a lot.

So when I buy beef, and I had somebody ask me this,

because this is pretty well known,

I hardly ever eat anything but beef.

I don't eat steak and beef like 99% of the time.

I just never been a big chicken guy

or anything like that.

So I gotta find some ways to curb that price.

So I do buy a lot at a time from farms across the country.

Actually, one of my favorite ones is down in Texas right now.

Word, okay, yeah.

I mean, no such thing as too much red meat for Nick.

It is what I'm here for.

I hear you.

Which I love it.

I'm the exact same way.

I'll splash the occasional chicken here and there,

but usually it's always some kind of beef.

Yeah, agreed.

All right.

What do we got here?

Ooh, okay, let's see.

If you were gonna buy,

so I put the bet signal out last week about trucks.

Like I said, been eating one.

Like the freezer was a good example of that.

Put out the back signal

of if you were buying a truck to our audience on Instagram

in 2025, 2026, what would you buy?

And honestly, man,

there was no consensus from our audience.

Like everybody was,

which is kind of another good example of like,

everybody's so different.

Everything's so subjective.

I mean, the only things that were most repeated

were genuine raptor.

And I don't know if it's because you've been saying it

for the last year.

Hey, good crowd, whoever that is.

Gen one raptor was the most repeated one.

And then an older Tundra was also the only one

that was repeated.

Yeah, be a good one.

I have an older Tundra.

Oh, that's right.

So other than that, I mean, you had like,

you know, get a seven three,

which got to love the old seven, three, fours.

Gen two lightning,

which is really what I'm leaning towards.

But it's funny, like it was all over the place.

Like everybody had the,

you could tell everybody had their favorite years

and favorite generations of trucks.

So other than genuine raptor and like a 20,

I think 2022, something like that to Tundra.

No, everyone else was all over the place.

Would you, cause someone actually said,

this is a great topic.

I'm also looking, I had that a couple of times.

I mean, you've had so many trucks,

if you were buying in today's, you know,

25, 26 prices, no matter the year,

what would you tell the listeners

that are looking for trucks soon?

Tundra's not, Tundra's a great choice.

Always a great choice, right?

So it's a great choice.

I've had several running in my business.

I've also had, you know, rams in my business.

I haven't really had much Ford and Chevy

to be honest with you.

So, but I, there's some,

there's some Chevy platforms and some Ford platforms

that have been very, very durable.

The question I'd asked myself on a truck,

and it was something I just wanted it

to be a reliability thing and less of a cool thing.

I think your choices are a little different, right?

I mean, for me, if I can go back

and get that original genuine raptor,

part of it is the bulletproof engine,

part of it is, I think it's cooler

than the Raptors out now,

although they've done a great job with Raptor.

I'm not saying they haven't, they've done a very,

but I stay away from the EcoBoost lineup

that has some problems show up.

We've actually done engine replacements on those.

Again, not an opinion.

This is things that have happened.

But I would be, do I want fun?

Which I think puts you right in

what you are lightning genuine Raptor.

I don't care about the bill.

I'm gonna, you know, trick this thing out.

I'm gonna do all the suspension bits.

I'm gonna, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Or is this just something that I wanna have

as an extra vehicle that's just kind of a workhorse?

And I think that puts you into Tundra.

There's some Nissan Titans that have some bullet,

very, very good engines.

Look, my business partner Marshall

had a Titan do massive mileage.

Really?

Yeah, he had it, you know, shout out Marshall.

He had it do some massive,

and I know other people that had great luck

with those early and mid Titan years.

But I think you gotta make that call about a truck.

And it sounds crazy because people are like,

well, you know, a truck's just to beat up.

Well, if you buy a Ford Lightning, it's not really to beat up.

Yeah, you're probably gonna take the tow package off anyway.

You're not gonna be toying with it.

You're just gonna put stuff in the bed,

which is great because I think

those are six and a half foot beds,

which is like way better than most,

you know, five foot boxes now.

But what if you went and found yourself

a little avalanche?

You know, I said that.

I know you've been thinking about it.

I did.

A truck guy just swerved off the road.

Dude, I really have.

And it's funny in the comments of those videos

that I've been looking at,

it's like I've never seen an avalanche tow something.

And in my mind, I think they're right.

Would you agree with that?

But I mean, I don't think it's about the towing

for getting an avalanche.

You just want the functionality of having a bed.

Yeah, you just want like a little bed.

You don't, I mean, let's be honest,

your ranch days are over.

Might, yeah, well, I mean for now

until I reacquire what's, you know,

left of the ranch later.

What's mine?

Hey, you can't really say things like that

on the internet.

Pretty much.

I'll see my siblings tomorrow.

I don't care.

I'll say it.

I put the work in here.

You guys are out.

I'm in.

That's right.

The Kenny Powers.

You're fucking out.

I mean, are you are you gutsy enough to go diesel?

As a matter of fact, when I saw here,

shout out to Christian 7 7.3 Godzilla, the F 250.

I love those.

And as a matter of fact,

there's a there's a new King shock system.

This is how much, you know,

I've actually been looking into it that has been

that have redeveloped to take out the leaf springs

and just have like this great ride on the older seven threes.

And that's what like really sent me over the edge

to like, can I find,

but these are like literally buying bricks of gold.

Like these things are pretty expensive right now.

Well, and that's why I always talk fondly

about the excursion from that time.

Yeah, absolutely.

See, to me, if I'm going to have 250,

it'd be real hard for me not to get an excursion.

I just think they're so unique and cool.

I know people are going to disagree

because they're like, well, I need a truck.

I'm just telling you,

if I was searching on the internet

and I had both tabs open

and I was about to wire the money,

it'd be real tough for me,

not to wire the money to the person with the excursion.

Would you keep the LX or get rid of it?

I always tell people that there's certain,

you know, I still have my old dodge.

I have a lot of older stuff.

I have somehow, unbeknownst to me,

knowing it was happened,

become one of those guys that keeps a lot more things

than I ever thought I would.

So you're a hoarder,

but you're making everybody feel like you're not a hoarder.

I know, it's horrible.

So it's one of those things like LX is,

it would probably go.

It just becomes a space thing at that moment in time.

So I'm not ready to make the change yet.

And also I think as we see the softening of the economy,

I think people are gonna be real shocked

at how some of this stuff wears off, right?

So, and again, I don't know to what percentage,

so nobody send in a DM.

I'm not making some prediction on how much,

but this can't continue.

And the economy's kind of saying that to you,

you know, behind the scenes companies

are talking about a big company, small companies like,

we're here now.

This isn't gonna keep going the way everybody thinks.

And there's gonna be some ramifications

to these platforms that we all think are great

that maybe are not collector's items, right?

That you're still having to pay high prices on.

I just saw a Tahoe from like 2012,

and a guy was asking like 32,000, 34,000.

And I just go, I hope you get it, brother.

I'm not rooting against you here.

But is that gonna stay strong as the economy weekends?

That's where I get a little bit.

I don't know how patient I would be if I needed a vehicle.

The answer is I wouldn't be probably,

but if you don't need something right this second,

what I maybe let the next six months play out,

I'd be inclined to do that.

Oh, absolutely.

So no free shout out.

So one of the car finders that we use and look at,

I realized the other day they've rolled out

like a beta version of historical data for cars

that usually isn't available unless you have

some sort of like a paywall service through somebody.

But anyway, it's free to the public

and just looking at price histories of lightnings

or whatever else, it's really fascinating to see

what just happened in the last three years.

Four years max.

And what's even happened in the last six months?

Yeah, that's true.

There's some platforms that are falling.

And I don't mean like, they're not in a freefall.

It's just like, here's three grand less here.

Here's another thousand at last.

Here's another, and again,

we're not talking about $500,000 cars guys.

I mean, that's a little bit of a different market.

But the sub 100,000 market,

you've seen some price decrease, okay?

Not on every platform, I know that.

But on a lot of platforms,

and I got several messages of people looking for LX's

and asked if I ruined the LX470 market by the way.

Brian shout out was one of the first ones,

but I got two more DMs about it.

And I'm like, yeah, I guess so.

I guess you, I gotta take credit for something.

Bravo.

Power of the podcast.

I really wanna ease people's mind.

I don't know what's gonna happen.

I think it's worth waiting three, six months.

I think the winter time could really provide value

where you see things that maybe

or 50 grand fall to 45, 44,

might be a good time to jump instead of the 50

for some people, you know, get that five to 6,000.

I don't think it's gonna go in half or anything could,

but it's not what I'm saying is gonna happen.

But I think you could see 10%, you know, 15%.

And in some cases, we've already seen that start to happen.

Dude, funny enough in the lightnings,

just because I keep bringing it up,

but I was looking at that one most recently,

15 grand about 30 years ago was the average price

in the US for a lightning with like 50,000 miles,

60,000 miles, it doubled in the last three years.

Now they're average going for 30 and above.

Yeah, and that could fall down to 22.

Yeah, which makes way more sense.

Right, it could.

Yeah.

Every platform's gonna be different,

but this is why we kind of tell you guys,

put a tab open.

Keep your eye on it, keep refreshing it,

keep understanding what's happening

on the things you're looking at.

So one of the things that I wanna tell people is,

is that once you hone in on something,

time is your friend, not your enemy.

So don't wait 10 years and not get the experience.

Let's be clear about it.

I think that's what a lot of people are doing.

Relax, 10 years is not what we're saying.

But if you started looking now

and you ended up buying next August,

do I think that's the worst way to handle yourself?

I don't think so.

Right, that's perfectly okay,

or six months or four months or whatever.

But time is your friend,

especially when you start feeling the uneasiness

in certain parts of the market,

like I think we're starting to see now.

Absolutely, gonna rapid fire a few here.

Just in them photography, pre-19 Sierra,

tough, has class, post-19 Sierra,

lacks quality, which by the way,

the way Nick says,

almost exactly like what I said,

XYZ, Jason Camisera, whoever else.

I've seen a lot of my takes being regurgitated through,

not just listeners, but on other videos.

I've always said 19, prior to 19 is what most people

right now are like,

ooh, I should go back and get something from 18, 19.

General Raptor, show topic, Raptor, Raptor, Raptor,

99.07, 5.3 Silverados,

which I've been talking about those as well.

The GMT-800 platform, great trucks,

but those as well are going for 30.

Yeah, when I was looking for a family,

before we bought the GX,

I was gonna go suburban.

Oh, that's great.

And I was looking at the 17s.

I mean, the most dependable year,

when you research it,

least amount of problems for a newer generation,

not going all the way back to the early 2000s

or anything like that.

Guys, that data's out there.

So if you're looking for a platform,

really go research.

Let's say a platform runs from 2000 to 2010.

There's data on which year is the best year

of those bills.

Absolutely.

So then you go, okay, I like that body style

for the most 10 years.

Go find out which is the most reliable year.

Hone in on that year.

That's your tab that's open.

Be resigned to find that year.

Now, I don't always do that, right?

Sometimes you gotta go, I gotta bend a little bit.

I gotta get one of them.

But that's the kind of research that any of us can do

and hopefully that helps some people.

Ocho Tex, would you please start wearing

a ranger's hat instead of a dirty asterisk?

I'm gonna have to go,

Ocho Tex, I'm gonna go block your ass from the show.

I know he's not.

No, he's not.

Just kidding.

No, fam, I can't.

Sorry, H-town till I die.

But not really.

Just the team.

Nick.

Yeah, you moved, you moved.

Gladly, happily, Central Texas is amazing.

It's God's country out here.

Nick, how do you find a good mechanic?

This is such a good question

and I'm really straightforward with it

with my response and I'll let Nick kind of give his

is literally just go out and talk to shops.

Cause I think that's gonna give you the first feeler

of like, these are cool people.

There's a cool owner if you can talk to the owner.

And test the waters or something small

and make sure they complete it the way that you wanted

that you needed that you saw everything

and you know, it's tip top shake, magoo kind of thing.

And then just go run the gamut.

There's only so many shops you can go to

within a reasonable distance

you're willing to drive to anyway.

So just talk to them all.

Yeah, I think the internet's your friend here.

You can find out a lot about people.

I don't put too much into reviews all the time.

But if somebody's had a thousand five-star reviews

and hardly anything else and you go there

and they got a pretty pristine garage

and they're professional at the front desk.

I think you can probably guess they're doing okay.

Yeah.

You know, they're probably pretty good people.

But I'm a vibe guy.

Totally.

I've walked in a ton of garages.

I go, oh, I don't want my car here.

Dude, that might be the spring shirt.

I'm a vibe guy.

Can you imagine?

Yeah, I'm a vibe guy.

I really am.

And I know that doesn't answer the question directly.

But you have to get some senses about

how good people talk in life,

how a good restaurant owner runs a restaurant.

This stuff is all,

to me, it's pretty ubiquitous.

When I walk into a store to buy something,

and I don't care what store,

Walmart would be a good example of this.

When I go to Walmart,

I know I'm just one of the sheep

in there to buy something cheap.

Yeah.

Okay, it's very evident with the vibe of the place.

Doesn't make it a bad place.

Doesn't mean you shouldn't go there.

Costco, same thing, okay?

You're just one of the people.

They can tell you how much they care about you.

Let's be honest, okay?

It's levels to it, but yes, I agree.

It's what it is.

So when you're shopping for aftermarket shop,

mechanic, whatever the case may be,

the vibe when you walk in the door

is really the most important thing.

And I've said this and people disagree

because they have a mechanic that was a mess once upon a time.

If the garage is a mess,

there's a lot of cars outside the garage.

There's a lot of dead cars outside the garage.

I'm going, what the hell's going on here?

I'll give you an example of this just in my business part.

Please.

In my business park, we have a meticulous mechanic.

In my business park of building over,

we have a mess of a body shop.

I can tell you which one I'm taking my cars to.

Every time.

My body shop, which I could send a lot of work,

I went over there because it was close to me

so it would help me for with my customers.

I walked in, I go, this place is a freaking mess.

The body shop that I use,

I had the one that I originally he shut her down

and said it's time for me to let to go down to retire.

When you walked into his body shop

and you walk into the current body shop I use,

it's spotless.

They do the most complete work.

They're not perfect by any means.

They got some things that sometimes you find.

If you use people enough, humans are humans.

They always fix it.

When you walk in, there's a professional person

sitting there.

The office is professional.

You look out into the shop, it's clean.

It's not perfect.

There's a difference between cleanliness

and doing work.

When you're doing work,

it's not gonna be the cleanest all the time.

But you can see that there's a process in what they do.

And process is what gets your cars fixed properly, right?

That's what gets your cars fixed properly.

So if they can't put their tools back,

if they got an engine laying on the ground

because they're working on it or just tore it out,

that's not a negative.

I don't want people to misunderstand this.

But if there's oil everywhere in the shop

that's not related to that engine they just pulled,

I'm going, why is there oil?

Nobody just threw through?

Yeah, I mean, and nobody just threw down some sawdust

and so let's clean this up or let's clean this thing up.

So that doesn't answer,

but the internet can provide you a lot of insight to.

Okay, don't put stock into reviews.

I want to say that.

Don't let that be your deciding factor all the time.

But it can be a start to you finding a shop

that you want to go visit and talk to the people

and explain what you want with your car.

And I think that's one of the things

as an owner of an aftermarket shop, I want to say to,

guys, you got to tell people what's important to you.

There's no way for me to know what's important to you

unless you tell me.

Now, my questions, I ask people, I get that information,

that's part of being a good owner.

But if you walk in and you go,

man, I am real particular about my wheels.

And guess what, man,

they're going to take care of your wheels

the way you want, you know?

Just like if you have aftermarket wheels

and you go to a discount tire

that you have a relationship with.

The manager sees you, hey, Rob, what's up?

Nick, what's up?

Dude, I just got these new aftermarket wheels.

Can you please make sure you're guys,

like, you know, I always tip your guys,

I just don't scratch them, don't, don't,

yeah, man, we got you.

But they don't know you're that particular

if you don't kind of lead with that and go,

man, I'm just a real particular about my wheels.

It's just the thing I love the most.

Or if you're real particular

about the exhaust sound you want,

or the type of work that you want done,

you can't be scared to tell people how it is for you

because I can promise you as an owner, I love that.

I just go, hey, man, cool,

I'm glad you're up front with me.

But there's a fine line between doing that like a jerk

and coming at people going, hey, man,

I realize I'm kind of picky.

I just kind of like this the way I like it.

They're like, oh, that's all good, man, no worries.

You know, you just,

you're talking about the aftermarket support

and businesses.

I had this sent to me a couple of times.

There's similar videos,

but similar videos with similar captions.

Me watching overland companies

go out of business that's charged astronomical prices

for Chinese products.

I'm just like, dude,

we've been talking about this on the podcast.

Please tell me you'll listen to it.

So that's going to be another big thing

that we see going into next year as well.

Like that genie is completely out of the bottle.

Pat posted this scene of this year.

Yeah, and the attack dog is out, right?

The manufacturers from overseas,

they've released the dogs.

They're like, hey, we're going to let everybody know.

You guys aren't building this.

Thanks Jimmy Carter.

There actually seems to be animosity,

which is pretty rare coming from a manufacturer.

Now they have animosity towards like,

we got to keep our factory running.

You guys aren't selling enough.

We'll show you, right?

And the wheel market is exploding,

you know, into bits and pieces right now

because of this.

And you have to also be aware

that sometimes the quality control of that company

that maybe doesn't build something,

it gives you peace of mind

at least they checked it.

You know, so some of that might be worth it for you.

And some of you guys might be going,

hey man, going to Tmoo, I don't care.

I'll go, right?

Not everybody's built that way.

I mean, I can tell you customers

that would just overpay to feel better about it.

Like they just want to feel like

there's a company behind it

and at least it went through their warehouse

and that makes me feel better.

There's no right or wrong here.

No, you're right.

And just, it also depends on what kind of a person

like you consider yourself to be

because I tend to lean on the side

that like I would pay more,

especially like, look, if it's not manufactured in the US,

at least if there's a US company that's trying to make it all,

you know, put it all together with good quality assurance

and such, I'd rather go that route, honestly.

And what's funny too is that

I'm seeing way more business type videos that are talking,

you always hear about NDAs,

but you never hear anybody talk about NNNs.

And all of a sudden, you know what I mean?

And like, I'm like, wait a minute, like never, Nick,

never have I heard anybody talk about that,

which for a lot of people that don't know

is similar to NDA, but way more strict

and it's a different kind of a thing

and what you would know in manufacturing in China.

And it's like, okay, where is this going?

Like, I feel like everything is only coming

to another side of another hill again.

Like as we talk earlier.

Yeah, I mean, NDAs are really big in my business.

I deal with them every day 24-7.

And I think the big misunderstanding with people

is a piece of paper doesn't stop people from doing stuff.

Because you gotta enforce it,

which means you gotta hire an attorney

and you gotta go to battle

and that's millions of dollars usually

and that's just not how it happens.

And so just like somebody looking for a good mechanic,

when you're in manufacturing,

you gotta be a good partner

and that's only gonna be as solid

as the people behind the company.

And I think that's what we're seeing falter.

Look at the first brands, what was it called?

First choice brands or first brands,

whatever the private equity firm

that bundled all those aftermarket,

you know, companies together.

Why did that fail?

Why do they not care about quality?

Why did they go into bankruptcy?

Well, because the private equity fund has no soul.

There's no human being behind that, right?

It's just a money-making machine.

And so when you see that they bought up Fram and you go,

oh, Fram isn't to quality, yet they don't care, right?

So you have to make the change.

You gotta go, hey man,

maybe I used Fram filters my whole life

and now it's not the same.

Okay, it's time to look for a new one

and what you wanna look for are the people behind things.

And that's what I hope

and I think that's what's gonna happen

in the marketplace

is that people are gonna be looking

for who are the human beings behind this,

which is something we probably should have never gotten away

from as a society in the first place,

especially in the car world.

That's the importance of going to,

oh my God, this mechanic's been in the community

for 40 years and everybody loves him

and they do fantastic work.

Your search is over, guys.

Like that's the person to go to.

But, and Rob, you know this better than anybody,

dealing with shops the way you do

and being around people like myself,

when they give you a price,

that's where the whole problem comes

because you don't wanna pay the high quality price

and that's your decision.

But you're more likely to get quote unquote ripped off

going to the cheap guy

than going to the guy that's been in the community

for 10, 15, 20, 30 years

who's just at a price point that you don't agree with.

That's not a real reason

to go I didn't go to a high quality mechanic.

I understand everybody's budget concerns

but we're getting asked about

how to find high quality mechanics.

High quality mechanics charge a high quality price.

You gotta be willing to pay it.

Of course, for sure.

And I talked months ago

when I had the hail damage repaired.

There's a couple other little things

that I wanna get done

that wasn't related to the hail

that I want the shop to do

and hopefully, he's a super cool guy

but he's so busy and been in the game so long

that I don't know how enthusiastic

he is about doing content, for instance,

but if he's down, I want him to fix some things

because if anything,

because the GTI is gonna get some things

done to it next year, wrapping it

and then going through my process.

If I don't learn how to paint correct,

which I love the color of the car,

but if I wrap some part of the car,

coating it, like using the hyperclaim products

just because I wanna get more familiarized

with taking care of the car,

it's got 120,000 miles.

And earlier we were talking about

the quality of stuff too,

the tellurize, the key is, the Hyundai isn't all that.

The car's got 120,000 miles,

it's at seven, eight years old now.

And it is, I mean, there's nothing in that car

that's fading, nothing is ripping,

nothing is the quality of that.

Now I've had dodges, I've had forwards,

all of them at seven, eight years,

approaching that 10 years, completely falling apart.

Yeah, no, it's a real thing.

Right, it's a real thing.

And then also you gotta say,

how you use your car has maybe contributed

to staying in good shape

is that it's mainly just you in the car at times,

you're driving it back and forth,

you're not a slob, you're not gonna tear your car up.

That's a part of it, right?

So you don't wanna put all the blame

on Ford or Dodge or Hyundai or Kia.

But there are cars that stay together

better than other cars.

Absolutely, although the snack caddies,

I know you don't like snacks in your car,

but snack caddies are definitely messy in the back

and I'm like, come on guys, like, why is there stuff on the,

what do you mean that's great?

Snack caddies, snack caddies is a wild move.

I got two, you know, I got two boy girls,

snack caddies in the back of the car,

so you know, practice, practice, school,

school, practice, practice, I gotta feed

these little monsters.

Look at you, going to the league, huh?

Gotta go to a lot of practices,

we're headed to the league.

Welcome to the show, one day I'm gonna be like,

welcome to the show, Sam, we're here.

You're gonna be on this video game one day, right?

All right, your seat's over there,

my seat's right here as we watch the game.

All right, we still got some more time here.

Do you think, I mean, I don't know how much insight

you're gonna have into this,

but do you think the EPA will actually

be neutered in the car industry?

It's kind of misspelled there,

but I think that's what you meant, sir.

I personally think there are some things

they're trying to rescind, you know,

they've talked about emission standards

going into 2027 or 2028,

the endangerment findings from like the Obama Air,

rolling some of that back,

that's kind of what started the whole EV mandate

back in 20, whatever it was, 13, 14, something like that.

So I think things are being made, man,

but all that stuff moves so slowly.

We've seen a lot of moves in the diesel world as well

with emissions being rolled back,

but again, slow process,

but I think if you're into that world,

you should stay up to it because things are moving.

Yeah, I also wanna be the voice or reason here

that not every decision has been EPA regulated.

Some of these car companies made decisions

because they wanted to make more money,

which they're a business, that's what they're supposed to do.

Oh yeah.

Right, and they've slid a lot of things

that they've done to consumers

under the guise of the government told us to do this.

And then you research it and you go,

I don't know that that was really that true.

Some of it was true, not all of it's true.

It's just like we told you guys,

you gotta be a real unseasoned person to go,

all these job losses are AI.

No, you lose job losses when the economy goes down,

the last 100 years.

And if a company can go,

we're gonna lay off 30,000 people

and they can blame it on AI,

that lets them off the hook.

So they're using it to get off the hook.

And you have the same thing, not everything,

I realize there's some standards

that have forced things in the automotive industry.

Don't get it twisted.

Some unfair regulations, some unfair timelines,

some unfair things have happened

that have put these manufacturers in tough spots.

Nobody told GM to gather your data.

That wasn't regulated by anybody.

They did that, but they'll,

you'll see the narrative as they get blowback.

Well, what you don't understand,

and there's this one random government regulation

that by the way is 7,000 pages

that none of you would understand the legalese in it.

They know that and they're gonna make you believe

it was some outside force.

That's not true either.

It's always somewhere in the middle, okay?

Nobody told all these car companies

to start shoving turbos into their daily drivers.

They did it anyway.

They didn't have to do that to meet EPA regulations.

Did they?

No, because they've made four-cylinder engines

all over the world that weren't turbo,

but they wanted to make you believe

they could give you more power,

didn't care about the reliability of a turbo engine,

didn't care about the maintenance

that was gonna come along with a turbo.

They wanted to give you more power,

and this allowed them to build a smaller engine,

get to the EPA regulations,

but they could have done that without adding the turbo.

They didn't do that, right?

So, but they'll tell you under the guise of the EPA,

this is why we did everything.

That's not true, right?

So you can't be a cynic and say,

government, government, government's the problem.

When car companies show you,

they make a lot of decisions

that aren't government regulated,

that are bad for you, the consumer,

like you having to pay for heated seats every month.

The government didn't regulate that.

They did.

So when people show you those things as car companies,

you gotta be somebody that goes,

yep, government regulation has a hand in this.

No question, but nobody told Mary Barra

to get rid of Apple CarPlay

so she could steal your data.

Nobody told her to do that.

As a self-proclaimed capitalist pig,

I will say that it just is what it is

because these companies want to make more money.

We talked about shareholder interest last week.

And if you just go back to early 2000s,

this is why I'm such a big proponent

of just trying to buy as much

American-made manufactured stuff

or American-made source or what have you

because when you go back to 01 to 08,

I mean, you're talking about three,

three and a half plus million manufacturing jobs

were lost when everybody off-shored stuff.

And now with AI and then the data and all that,

I mean, in my opinion,

you're probably gonna see that double

because the output's gonna be so much more intensified

for a duration of time.

I don't know how long,

but you're gonna see a lot of people

also out of work, some of it was regulations,

but other half of it was probably just,

hey, we can make more money,

shareholders, so on and so forth.

And that's what I think makes the conversation balanced, right?

Is that you wanna be the person,

and look, everyone's gonna be around family

and friends at the holidays.

You're going to be able to pick out

who is the person living in the real world

of how things actually work

and how many people are picking a side,

which by the way,

whatever side you're on is wrong, guaranteed, okay?

Because it's always something in the middle, right?

Politics, car stuff,

it's always something in the middle of

the government regulated this,

but oh, by the way,

we've done all of these other money-making schemes

that had nothing to do with the government,

but we can blame it on the government,

so we get the cover,

just like we said with the AI job loss thing.

Sure, it's gonna happen.

I mean, people lost jobs in the horse business

when cars became a thing, right?

That is what happened,

but that wasn't all the immediate job loss.

There was other things in the economy that lead to that,

so one of the things about the car companies

is we actually are probably pretty fair and go,

they've been put in some rough spots.

I mean, the government's around the world

put them in some rough spots.

I'll be the first one to say that.

Since the 70s.

And I've said it, yeah, I've said it a million times.

That doesn't mean everything is on the government.

You know, nobody told VW to do the diesel gate thing.

That wasn't the government.

The original gate of all gates.

Not in plate gate, it was diesel gate.

Yeah, I mean, that wasn't the government, right?

Well, we were trying to meet standards.

Yeah, but that didn't mean you had to cheat the data.

Like, you chose to cheat the data.

That can't be blamed on the government, right?

I get it that the regulation was part of that,

but lying about the data was the choice.

It was a whole other decision, yeah.

Right?

So we can say that's the perfect thing to look back on and go,

yes, this was government regulated.

You chose to lie instead of just fixing your issues.

Oh, really, because I read in the memo,

we should lie a little bit to our consumers.

I mean, and we see this from commenters all the time.

Look, man, you want to be anti-government.

I had somebody tell me that they should roll back

safety regulations.

OK, so that was the guy in the video from the 80s,

where he said he can't drink in his car anymore

without a seatbelt.

Yeah, you guys are like, well, if I

can get a $20,000 truck, just do away with all the safety

stuff, and I go, are you advocating for safety rollbacks?

Like, you want to put your kid in this truck

and have no crumple zone?

He's like, I drove a Pentel, I was fine.

I mean, guys, some of this stuff is like,

I'm one of the staunchest people that says,

your car shouldn't beep at you for not wearing a seatbelt

and the thing that you pay for.

I also understand the importance of them probably

having some seatbelt regulations.

Like, I don't think it should tell me

what to do inside something I pay for.

That's my stance.

I'm not going to be the guy that goes,

let's get rid of crumple zones so people die in every car

accident.

Like, we can go too far with this stuff, guys.

It's true.

But this is today, and Nick might change his mind

tomorrow and be like, you know what?

Just do away with it.

Who needs crumple zones, crash bars?

Look, I have customers that literally

buy pieces of seatbelts to put in so they

don't have to wear their seatbelts.

Oh, of course.

It doesn't ding at them, right?

There's also hacks for that, guys.

There's a couple of like, it's like a controller code

on a Nintendo, like click, click, click, insert.

Sometimes you just pull a fuse in some older cars.

You know, all good.

You know, I say this with great respect, guys,

is like, I don't think any of us listening or myself

want to be the people that don't understand how

the real world works.

That doesn't mean you can't have gripes about it.

But some of the things have been a bonus.

Most people walk away from car crashes today.

They had points of time that that was a lot higher number

of people losing their life.

Not everything has been bad that the government said, eh,

maybe don't put the gas tank in the trunk.

People get re-rendered a lot.

Costs a lot of explosions.

I mean, OK, man, I mean, maybe they had a point.

What a time.

Let's see, we'll do a few more here

as we round out the hour.

What are the problems I'm going to expect

with my Jeep Gladiator in a few years so far so good?

I will say, I only have experience

with one heavily modified Gladiator, which

might end up making its way to the show sometime next year.

So far no issues.

They use it for a lot of overlanding trails, Moab,

intense stuff, all kinds of stuff.

But I think it's going to go back to,

what's the maintenance look like?

How well are you taking care of it?

Just like with anything, man.

We like to make fun of the Jeep people and Gladiators.

Jeep has a very up and down history with quality control.

It does, on top of it.

At times, they do well.

At times, they do atrociously.

I think it's going to be year to year of which one you own

seems to be.

And as a guy that's owned a lot of Jeeps myself

and my history, I've had a lot of Jeeps,

albeit I owned older ones, that weren't really

problematic at all.

But they didn't have a lot of moving parts.

They weren't fancy.

They had to round gauges.

And I know people that do a lot of stuff with Gladiators.

And I'll swear by them.

I've had people that have had nothing but a horror story.

If yours is rolling well, I'd say

be meticulous about maintenance.

Find out what things are problematic on the year

that you own and probably just get to replacing it.

If you have a cooling system problem that's known,

might be time to just get you a new cooling system.

It's sort of like what happens in a European car.

Absolutely.

I just went through that.

Once you buy an older European car and they go,

this always happens, you just rip it out

and put the new thing in that fix the problem.

And for some people, you've never owned platforms

that that was the reality.

Sometimes that's the best thing to do, is go research.

What are the problems of your year, Gladiator,

and just preemptively go get the best fix that's

in the marketplace?

All right, we'll end with this one question-wise.

Thanks again to everybody that sent questions.

We'll do some more next week.

This was probably the ultimate hang episode, which

a year later is very fitting, because that's

what we love to offer to you guys.

GMC AT4, remember the AT4, $116,000 truck?

So I saw the video on the AT4 you talked about,

and it was absolutely stupid to pay $118,000,

although it was, and I got it wrong.

It was a $2,500, not a $1,500.

So it was a Duramax.

So in August, he bought, this is Richard, a $25 a year,

$1,500 AT4 with a three-liter Duramax.

He paid $61,000.

$61,000.

That sounds about right.

Right, so will dealers try to scan people

with these overpriced packages and add-ons?

Absolutely.

But there's more reasonable dealers at all time.

Just keep up the good podcasting.

I thought he was going to say, just keep up the searching.

Like you always say, just do your due diligence,

and you'll find the people that are not

going to gouge you that way.

This, again, goes back to the middle ground.

There are really horrible dealers in the world.

There are really great dealers in the world.

And so that means most of them are just average dealers.

They're not really smart enough to gouge you

as much as you think.

But are some of the bad ones really good at gouging you?

Yeah, man.

Pros.

But that's 20, 30, 40, 50 years of it.

It's not new in 2025.

And that's one of the things we want to get across

is everybody thinks this last five years

is somehow the reality of the car market at all times.

It isn't.

And we're seeing it normalized now, like we said it would.

That doesn't mean every car is normalized.

But I can tell you this.

Go to, I think it's the LX 700 Overland.

Might be the trim package.

Those are steeply discounted already.

Oh, the overtrail, maybe?

Overtrail.

Yeah.

Yeah, there you go.

Those are not doing well in the marketplace.

So they're discounting them already.

Yeah, man, you might find the GX 550

is not the reality inside Lexus brand.

We certainly know our X's are not ever going on sale.

They sell those every minute of every day.

But again, just inside one brand,

you see that from model to model, trim to trim,

there's different realities.

OK?

Do your due diligence.

Buy nationwide.

Don't just buy in your local area.

Test drive in your local area.

But if they're not going to do a deal with you

at the price you want, somebody in Georgia

and you live in Texas might give you the deal you want.

They put it on a truck.

I promise you, to everyone who's never done that,

it's not a big deal.

Man, those things, 121 is what MSRP is.

And I see half of them are in the teens.

So half are sticking to 121 plus,

and half of them are in the teens.

And my looking for some for customers,

I bet there's some you could get for 109, 110.

If you're willing to go in there, cut a check.

We're willing to go in there with financing ready to go.

No headache.

Let me walk out the door with it right now,

especially as December 31st comes around,

there's going to be deals.

And if you're in the market for a car,

just so you know, the time between Christmas

day and the end of the year, you

get some really motivated dealers.

Well, dude, again, one-year pot-aversary,

great episode, great hang, tons of questions.

We got through most of them, but we still

have a lot of other ones.

So if you want to send any kind of question,

comment, email, KletchCulturePodcastatgmail.com.

And we're at KletchCulturePod all over the internet.

Hibercleansstore.com, you can get the hoodie, 15% off.

BF, what's the code again?

It's BF15, everybody.

And along with all the other Hibercleans products

in the store, when we say limited stock,

we're not just saying that for scarcity and urgency.

They really are limited.

So if you want one, we've already

sold a lot of them this morning,

and this is being recorded a little bit early.

But it's also going to drop a little bit early.

So if you miss the opportunity,

there will be more, especially if they sell out.

It'll be a lot faster of a restock.

Dude, have a great Thanksgiving.

Or at this point, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Left the politics out of it, had a good time.

I'm going to be playing bucket golf

for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving.

So I'm looking forward to that with my siblings.

I told them, bring your wallet.

I have a Goat Trophy that we pass around at holidays.

I currently have the Goat Trophy

from the last Olympic Games that we did,

the summer games at my parents' house.

So if I lose it, I might lose my spot on the podcast.

But if I gain it, I mean, if I keep it and retain it,

I'm going to show the trophy on the podcast.

So keep holding it to it.

All right, man, take care.

See you.

0:00

72:08

1 Year Podiversary, Car Talk, Black Friday, Answering Your Questions & More

Land Rover Defender

Mercedes-Benz Clk Gtr

Kia Telluride

Hyundai Palisade

Toyota LS 400

Toyota Corollas

Toyota GX550

financing

Jeep Gladiator

Porsche 911 GT3

Mazda Miata

Jaguar Ftype

Mazda MX-5 Miata

Ford Raptor

Toyota Tundra

Ford Gen 2 Lightning

Ram

EcoBoost

Ford F-150 Raptor

Nissan Titans

Chevrolet Avalanche

Ford F-250

leaf springs

Ford Excursion

Chevrolet Tahoe

price histories

LX 470

Chevrolet Silverados

GMT-800 platform

Toyota GX

Ford Rangers

aftermarket wheels

Volkswagen GTI

turbo

Ram 1500

About this episode

Original notes