Washer fluid is a special liquid that helps clean your car's windshield. It's important for keeping your view clear while driving, especially when it's dirty or rainy.
The Mazda CX-5 is a type of vehicle called a compact SUV. It's designed to be comfortable for passengers and has enough space for cargo, making it a good option for families or those who need extra room.
Voice activation lets you use your voice to control things in the car, like playing music or getting directions, so you don't have to take your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road.
Technology in cars includes all the electronic features that help you drive and enjoy your ride, like GPS, music systems, and safety features. Some people find these new features hard to use.
The Jeep Cherokee is a type of SUV that can handle rough terrain and is popular for both city driving and outdoor adventures. The 2026 version will likely have new features and improvements.
Voice activated car controls let you use your voice to control things in the car, like navigation or music, so you don't have to take your hands off the wheel.
The Porsche Macan is a small luxury SUV that drives like a sports car. It's known for being fun to drive and has a nice interior with lots of tech features.
The Tesla Model Y is a type of electric car that looks like a small SUV. It runs on electricity instead of gasoline, which means it's better for the environment. People like it because it's roomy inside and has cool technology features.
Reliability means how well a car works over time without breaking down. A reliable car is less likely to need repairs and is usually more dependable for everyday use.
Leasing means you pay to use a car for a few years instead of buying it. When the lease ends, you give the car back and can get a new one or buy the one you were using.
A high mileage driver is someone who drives a lot more than most people. This can make leasing a car more expensive because you might go over the allowed miles.
Rust is what happens when metal gets wet and starts to break down. It can make car parts weak and unsafe, especially things like brakes that need to work well.
The Eurovan is a type of van made by Volkswagen that is roomy and good for families or trips. It was made around the year 2000 and is often used for camping.
The brake pedal is what you push to make the car stop. If it feels soft or goes all the way down without much resistance, it means something is wrong with the brakes.
The Mercedes GL is a large luxury SUV that has a lot of space inside for passengers and cargo. It's known for being comfortable and having many high-end features.
The emergency brake is a backup system that helps keep your car from rolling when parked. It's usually activated by a lever or a switch and can be used if the regular brakes stop working.
One pedal driving means you can control the car's speed using just the gas pedal. When you let go of it, the car slows down, making it easier to drive, especially in stop-and-go traffic.
An E-brake is a special brake that helps keep a car from rolling when parked. Some people also use it to help turn the car quickly in certain situations.
The Bricklin SV-1 is a unique car from the 1970s that has special doors that open upwards. It was designed to be fast and sporty, but not many were made, making it quite rare today.
The GM family of brands means the different car brands that are owned by General Motors, like Chevrolet and Cadillac. Saab used to be one of them before it was shut down.
The Mazda RX-7 is a sporty car that uses a unique type of engine called a rotary engine. The 1984 version is one of the earlier models.
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He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markin. This is Car Keys.
Good day to our audience about for this week's version of Car Keys with Jada Markin and Robin Leach. We are in the
early part of the winter cold season as this show is done and
a couple of things have come across my
Radar from personal experience and the first one was I
needed to use my windshield washer to clean my windshield on a morning in which the
Temperature was in single digits and I was flying along the road at 65 to 70 miles an hour and lo and behold
No fluid came out of the nozzles and I have had this problem before and I have washer fluid that is either
rated at
minus 20 or minus 25 along and all my washer
receptacles in the cars that I have and
As far as I can tell it's fresh enough so that should not have diminished its
Resistance to freezing but I have found that they seem to freeze in the
lines between the water bottles where the fluid rests and doesn't seem to freeze and the nozzles and
Either the nozzles get wind chill or the what I'm not sure quite how it works
But I have found that sometimes I do not get effective windshield washer use
And don't some cars have a hey Robin. Don't some cars have
Heaters heat it heat it
Well, it's possibly that they do but I do not know any domestic vehicles that have actually heated nozzles
I've never been on the options list of of a window sticker
If they do Jay and our listeners we could find out and you could go buy cars with this
This feature if it was important, but enough on that
So
It is a good thing
I believe to advise that you test your windshield washer fluid in temperatures that are below 10 degrees
Consistently if we have them or before you start driving or clean your windshield washers the windshields when the cars are still and
Presumably the fluid will flow and if you're in a storm
With ultra-cold
Conditions you may or may not find that you have reliable windshield washer capability if you need it and that's all that
Um, there's a
Jay, I want you to discuss what you know about AI
Gain as as an article headline that I'm looking at that AI gains ground in the auto industry
you brought it up in one of your lists and
Is it the Gemini or something like that where AI is apparently doing something
No, there were there were a couple articles that refer to AI and one of them
I don't know if I sent you the link, but I actually did not read the article
So I can't tell you much about it and that was the one that I think that involved automation at in in
Factories and the question was whether AI was going to replace humans in
Auto factories and you know to be fair robots. I've already I think robots are doing that quite effectively
Yeah, I don't think it's that's irrelevant for much of discussion on the show
But I thought if it was in the technological field, I know nothing about it. I I'm I'm
I'm
Confronted by lots of AI
requests for AI assistance and my real estate business believe it or not
And I'm online in my cell phone
And I do not know much about AI and I'm sort of resisting getting involved with it
So, let me know what you knew anything about it. Well, the other thing I I had
Mentioned is the I read a through an article quickly on the in you
Mazda CS5, right, you know, they're middle middle-sized SUV and
They have
Um
Google's AI feature, what is it called Germany? Yeah, and I guess
You can control a bunch of the car controls using
Assistant correct and it basically it's voice activation. Okay, I can tell I guess that another another piece of technology
That is encroaching into the newest models of vehicles coming across
A side note is that I have talked to several people recently who are and they're all I would say older
people who are still driving actively and and
Are resisting as their desire to own a new car because of all the technology or else
They're just ignoring it and they just say as far as they can tell they have all this stuff in their car
But they don't know how to operate it so as long as they can drive the car put it in gear and get the radio to work
And then maybe the heating system to work. They're okay
But they wish that they had that they had their older car which they traded in in this case
It was a Honda traded in on a new
Hyundai vehicle and I got an earful about how the owner who is
Up in years is very frustrated because he says his car has all this technology
He doesn't know how to use it and he doesn't even want to learn how to use it
So there may be a return to some
basics in the
dashboard
Facilities of vehicles
I'm going to I'm waiting to try the new Jeep Cherokee
2026 I think just
Okay, go ahead before we get in before we get into the Jeep chapter of this show
Car controls I think voice activated car controls are actually a good thing
if they're reliable and and I'm guessing that with
The advent of AI most likely we will have
Systems that are pretty reliable when you ask certain things
They will they will you know you the car will respond or the features will respond
But I don't know much about it. I do agree with you. We've talked about this at nauseam in the pet in the past
We you and I and a lot of you know older people
And we classify such don't necessarily like a screen
And all right right controls. Yeah, you know recently
I'd be I was in two different cars that have very different approaches and that and I've talked one of them
I've talked about
Maybe a bit too much in the last couple shows is that Porsche Macan electric that has a center screen that is very
Not only eyes and it's not only user friendly. It's not oversized. It's actually integrated totally in the center of the dash
It's not one of those little
Flat screens or tablets that are stuck on top of the dash and and the other car was
you know Tesla why and
The cars operating very very different modes even though the Tesla the one I was in was two or three years old
The way you go about things is very different and you know, I guess not all cars are for all people although I think
In the future
I'm hoping we we stay with you know a few knobs like in the Porsche and and and I know Honda is doing that too and
And not go crazy like in in in Tesla mode
I
Agree with you completely for our audience. I think I actually can narrow my
Discussion on this to this topic of knobs to do two things one
Volume eyes or turn turn the volume up and down on a radio station is playing and to
To do to manually be able to scroll through the FM stations or the satellite stations with a knob
instead of
Even trying to use voice control
But the voice control is actually effective as you have survived and for our audience that's good for them to know
I you but I find sometimes I I get confused by the in the vehicles
I have it have it when I try to say tune to XM radio
Channel blah blah or tune do I do it tune to one over Robin Hood radio?
Yeah, Robin Hood radio or not and and sometimes it it doesn't quite take it and get me to the
To it in the first attempt and I have to vary my input to see which one the
Computer's gonna
Recognize and lead me to the station or the app that the or the or you know
The type of radio I want to listen to is it AM FM or XM, you know or satellite or something else
Hey, so moving on and talking about Tesla
You know that we know people have
Different views on the company on the cars. I've read about a consumer
Control report article about
quality control and
Reliability of Tesla's and and that you older Tesla's
seem to come way down in the reliability department and
I'm a little surprised by that and there have been comments and into the methodology used by consumer reports because
It is quite not quite fair to compare a car that doesn't require
Not with a point or the counterpoint
It's not quite fair to compare a car that doesn't require pretty much any maintenance to a nice
E
Car that goes into a shop regularly for maintenance and therefore
The the times you do go in it's to deal with problems. Yes
You know, we know Tesla had has had quality issues in the past and
Allegedly, they're all gone now, but I
People who've had Tesla do not do not
Believe that the cars are unreliable. They and a lot of people have said, you know, that it is the most reliable car
They've owned and I was reading a comment of one particular user who said you got to dissociate the car from the company
The car is great, you know, we sold all of our stock, but one stock in the company
and
And and you know, that's it. Okay, it's still a great product. Let's get yeah, okay
I agree. Let's talk about consumer reports because it's a very important
Periodical that a lot of people use when they are determining
What car they ought to try and buy I used to get the magazine. I do not get it anymore
I do not personally go to it for a recommendation because I have a very
uh
distinct
Knowledge base in my head about what I want to own and I don't I'm not going to go review it through that magazine's reviews
I found though over time that most of the time it when there was a critical report on vehicles that they were using
It mostly seemed to deal with the technology of the touch screens and the ease of use and
In this it may goes back some years so in the early days of this new technology arriving on our dashboards in cars
There were definitely with some
Lack of suitable
Pretesting before it got on the road to confuse users and they were they were actually in my opinion
They were rating cars on the basis of the ease of use of some of this technology more than they were talking about the
Mechanical reliability of the drive trains
The lights in the car and things that don't really
fail
So I just have I left I have left to report off of my
resource
List of things if I'm researching cars and and I don't I just thought that they're not good
They're relevant to the degree of how they do it, but I think they ought they never I thought they should have refined their rating
by distinctly
Saying that the rating is because of the technology and not just
And they might actually do that now
But instead of just rating them without defining exactly why the rating was where it was in a list of baby
You know 20 vehicles or something like that
So in in their defense, I would say their methodology is explained and it's
It's
tedious it's scientific
I guess
and
Or to the best of my understanding of it
And and and so you get a bunch of statistics and they and they and they try to sort that out
I think they leave out the emotional factor that we may have for a car or not and
You know how the car feels
To us particularly do we like the car do we like the way it looks do we like how comfortable it is or not and and
And so that does not I think factor in to their analysis much
I also
Once in a while I have my eyebrows go up because I see like the same like different models within the same product range
Like you take Subaru's for example, which are virtually identical from what mechanically from one model to another and
Therefore, you know very different test results as far as reliability from one model to another
kind of triggers some kind of
Question mark in my mind, but it's a tool. It's not the only tool
But I guess it is a tool and a and a good one
But anyway moving on from consumer reports
Where do we go next?
Well, you have a list of
You sent me about and I suggest that you talk about
Certain numbers on those list one and two and then six seven eight nine
I don't know what that list is up on your screen. I don't know. I have no numbers, but
but it was about auto sales and
One of them was auto sales and
I'll try to pull up
the
Auto industry I think is in not a very good shape and I think it is a worldwide
Phenomenon
You know sales are not good in Europe. They're not good in the US. They're certainly not good in China
Some companies do better than others
You know like well test line on the Chinese market is it's actually increased their sales this year
But I know only selling one in, you know
That's what the idea is going to be. Yeah
So, you know, you all those numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt
but the industry is suffering and
We you know, we know part of that is that push to EVs
That have taken different
Different forms in Europe and and then in the States
But both have been, you know
somewhat
Fiscally driven and and and the tax advantages that they offer in Europe are not the same as they are at home
But still this is what has partly driven the the electric
Car market and it's still not taking off. So now there's all this backtrack and
And and and sales are suffering, but I think there's more to it than that the economy is not doing all that great
There's that has been soaring inflation. We've seen the price of cars go up
I think now that the average transaction price for a car is and we mentioned 46 47,000 now
50 actually in some some holes and and and that's up from 38,000 in
2020 I think I think you're right as we were talking about mid 30s to high 30s and in around that time frame and
It got into the low 40s and makes been creeping upward
But there's no there's no question that the devil that has an effect on the affordability of new vehicles for sure
In other words, our financing cars are not particularly
Attractive
Leasing is still the way to go because I see ads for leases that are in the mid between two and three hundred dollars a month range
And I'm not talking about the exotic cars
To our audience on this I'm talking about the basic a lot of them American iron and good. They're good cars and
But the leases are while
My recommendation personally is try not to lease a car for more than three years and maybe 36,000 or 40,000 miles because you pay
Beyond the limit of the miles if you're a high mileage driver
But it's a lot cheaper than financing a vehicle at five or six percent for three or four or five years
and
That I think you have to be careful of our monthly cost for quite frankly and then and the consumers monthly cost
Besides whatever else they're paying for a month
Well, I think that's a it. That's a
A
Decision that everyone has to make I think that's correct thing with leases leases are you you know
You're the car is not yours at the end of the term and if you just and I know people who just leave them for it
like you say 24 30 months just turn them in and
Get a new one and don't don't think twice about it
Others buy the cars at the end of the at the end of the term and in that case usually that
Milo's doesn't really matter because if you're buying a car
They don't care about those extra miles or they shouldn't care about those extra miles
But the price the buyout price is also determined the determining factor
So you're still you're still paying interest is just on what are you paying interest on the on a fraction of the value of the car?
You're paying
You know interest on the entirety of the car if you're buying it and and financing it
but and and
So I think that the the thing with the car market and and
among other things is that the
The cars and we've discussed this before too, you know, I have anyway
Um is that cars are way better built than they ever were
So having an eight-year-old a ten-year-old car now is is
totally
You know, you're not acceptable looking. It's totally acceptable. It's reliable
It's still reliable transportation
but so
Let me jump in on
I'm the ten-year car ownership situation because I have several of them or two or three
Yeah, so much the best thing with the most important thing that I can discuss in the in owning a car through ten years of use is
To watch out for and be aware of and try to prevent rust from
Starting up in the parts of the car components of the car which is exterior parts mostly and probably under body
like brake lines and and
items like that from rusting and being becoming dangerous
During that ten-year period which which is something you won't see at all until it happens. I once lost my brakes
On the mass chooses term pike in my
2000 Euro van this was probably eight or nine or ten years ago
I didn't totally lose them
But I lost them to the point that the brake pedal mostly went to the floor before anything started to help me slow down and
Uh, they the the the
Parts that were failing were the brake lines and they were rusted when I got it into a
Repair place and they had to replace all the brake lines
You you bring up a very good point because I had a similar situation a couple years ago
In what was then a I think it's something like a 15 year old
Very nice very well maintained Mercedes GL
Wagon and the car was and still is mints, but I was driving down the road and
At 35 miles an hour principle and it went to the floor and the brake lines are gone
And I think this is the risk of
Cars that fit and I know your Euro van gets a lot of use at certain times a year
But then you know for months we don't see it around town, right? And I think
cars that fit
Long periods of time not being used having being used during the winter and maybe not
You deteriorate it's amazing what happened to them. Yes
About where and they're not having having thinking about where and tear occurring when you park a car for for six months
Even if it's in the winter time and you zone in the summer time things the funny things go on in the wear and tear of
Componentry and bodies and whatever else especially if the cars parked outside
So
That is sort of a safety situation and I'd like to bring up something
You interrupt the this conversation part and bring up something about the new cars all of which seem to have these
toggle switches in the between the seats
For their emergency brakes and I wondered what would happen if you pulled one of those toggles up while you were driving
You know we used to have a pedal down many big cars may still have pedals down the left foot down on the side of the
driver's side of the compartment
The some of the older cars used to have handles between the seats and they and they were very
Mechanically effective at least they felt that way now you have a toggle switch and you pull it up
There's a does the emergency brake go on suddenly and and and the rear wheels stop in
Turning because they're they're putting such a force on the wheel. It would be
Probably a smart thing for owners to try out their emergency brakes on older cars
Periodically because sometimes the lines freeze up to a rust and and they're if they're cable connected
I do not know what how they're connected now in the new cars, but they're cable connected. It's very possible those old
those
Mechanical backups
Called the emergency brakes might not function as in the case of my VW van
I don't sure I ended up trying that but the experience was quite something when the pedal went to the floor and the car
Their vehicle would not slow down significantly
It made me drive very carefully to the rest of my destination in that case and and I did it safely and got it fixed
But this is a safety check
There's one good solution for that is electric cars with one pedal driving. They'll bring you to a stop
If you have if they have that adjustability to all electric cars have that adjustability. No, not well
That's why I was there was do I know yeah
Yeah, there's there's philosophies in electric car driving there
But there's a my car and for example do that. Do you think no very little?
So that that comment is a good comment, but it's not universal to the electric
It wasn't meant to be it was meant more as a joke than anything else. Oh, okay
But yeah, it's old old e-brakes also you or the other thing would happen as you pull the e-brake and then it wouldn't
Relief and then you're stuck with the e-brake, right?
Sometimes it sometimes the emergency brake the e-brake freeze when they're in the garage
I have found if I've lived to park the car in a garage for let's say two or three months and and I
Had put the emergency brake on inside
It's sometimes they don't release when you first
Try to have them release and you have to almost
Move the car to get the the emergency brake effect to release itself and let the car tires roll
I do have to say I missed those
E-brakes mechanical e-brakes on the rear wheels. I grew up driving front-wheel drive cars
With e-brakes and that was the only car to that was the only way to do a 180 fairly quickly and easily
And now I ride exact was pulling the e-brake and turning it around
Yep
Do not try this at home
Of the exactly do not go home. Oh, okay. Now your list Jay
Well, I'll be fine with my list. I'm I'm following looking at hold on before we go to my list
I'm looking at a bring a trailer which every car enthusiast should be looking at every morning. It is an addiction
Warning, but if you do that and you should start to Robin you'd find you'd see this morning Robin
There is a 1975
Brickland for sale and if you miss yours and you bid above above fifteen thousand two hundred and fifty dollars right now
This one could maybe be yours. What color is it? It is white
Mine was on tan, which is effectively a light tan brown
So it's like I'm repainted that is not my vehicle, but I'm interested in them
Prices at 15,000
15,000 we must be a little like new because mine mine got restored as those people who have ever looked at looked up
What was my the title of my thing on YouTube?
Listeners, I can't you want to see the restoration of a brickland that was in very deteriorated condition
Listers it was mine and it was hauled out of my garage. I think four years ago and
It is on YouTube and I think your viewership is in the millions
And if you look up world world world world world worst brickland restoration or garage restoration of a brickland
Some words to that effect might pull it up for you listeners. Okay?
Okay, Jay move on well the restoration was good. The other one is a is a car that disappeared
In 2010 the whole brand disappeared and it was part of the GM family of
Brands and with the debacle of the crisis in 2008 2009
The sob a brand was killed and sob had just come out if you remember
With a very good-looking
95 9-9-5
Arrow it was a big it was a large
Very I thought pretty good-looking sedan. I don't know if you remember that car right?
I do remember and I'm not sure I agree with you your appeal of the of that particular
Car body style, but go ahead. I thought it was in the it was an appealing large sedan
I don't say that was something that would drive
but in the sob world it was certainly
Probably the most plush
Car that sob had produced and it might have had a great
Life except that sob cease to exist of pretty much today the car came out
They're very I don't know what the total number of cars were
produced was
Or is but I can tell you that this one right now is that no reserve for less than five thousand dollars
With less than three hours to go and if you're a sob fan
This is something you should check out
Here was that to 15 to 2010. Okay, since I have a
An older vehicle that currently is a garage because it's not drivable
It's my 1984
Mazda RX 7
Parts are not available or we're not available through standard auto body shop for
for the damage repair that it required and
If you go by some of these really old cars that
Are very visually appealing from their original days, but you don't get in an accident
That's my only admonition to the tool with listeners on this
Is do not get an accident in any of these vehicles because you might find them very hard to get repaired
So you're saying keep your eyes on the road is what you're saying your eyes on the road and don't get an accident like I did
To our audience. Thank you for listening to this week's version of car keys with J. DeMarken and Robin Leach
car keys with Robin Leach and J. DeMarken is produced at the facilities of
WHDD 91.9 FM Robin hood radio comm Sharon Connecticut
About this episode
Robin Leach and Jay de Marcken tackle winter driving challenges, focusing on the importance of testing windshield washer fluid in cold temperatures. They discuss the growing role of AI in the automotive industry, particularly in vehicle controls, and how older drivers are often overwhelmed by new technology. The duo also debates the reliability of Tesla vehicles, the impact of Consumer Reports on car buying decisions, and the current state of the auto market, including leasing versus buying. They wrap up with insights on classic cars and the challenges of maintaining older vehicles.
