The Ranchero is a Ford name that used to be a pickup with a more car-like look. Here, the host is talking about a possible 2028 version that could be electric and built to be about the size of the Ford Maverick.
A “total electric truck” is a truck that runs only on electricity from a battery. Instead of using gas, you charge it like an EV.
Term
build it yourself
“Build it yourself” refers to a kit-style approach where the buyer assembles the vehicle rather than purchasing a fully finished car. In an EV context, it can change cost, timeline, and how much support the manufacturer provides for things like wiring, software setup, and compliance.
Electric windows are power-operated window regulators controlled by switches instead of manual cranks. The host is using them as an example of “accessories” that could raise the price of the build.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E is Ford’s electric vehicle that’s styled and marketed like it belongs in the Mustang family. The host’s point here is that the “Mustang” name didn’t help sales the way Ford hoped.
The Ford Mustang is a well-known sports car model. The podcast is talking about the Mustang Mach-E, which is the electric version of the Mustang. It comes up because the discussion is about how that EV was marketed and positioned.
The Ford Lightning is an electric pickup truck based on the F-150. It’s meant to be the same kind of truck you’d recognize, but powered by electricity instead of gas.
An electric vehicle lineup just means all the electric cars a brand sells. They’re saying Ford doesn’t have enough electric models to keep customers interested.
Marketing strategies are how a company tries to persuade people to buy something. The hosts are saying that for EVs, the messaging and sales approach hasn’t always matched what buyers experience after they purchase.
Electric vehicles are cars that run on electricity stored in batteries. Instead of using gasoline like most cars, they use an electric motor to move the vehicle.
Concept
enthusiasm to buy electric vehicles
This refers to the customer “buy-in” needed for EV adoption—whether people feel excited and confident enough to actually purchase. The hosts connect it to how well manufacturers, dealers, and sales teams communicate EV benefits and set expectations.
“Chinese imports” means cars made in China that get shipped to other countries to be sold there. If a country makes importing harder, companies may start building cars locally instead.
Volvo is a car company. Here they’re described as working with other brands and investing in a factory in Belgium so cars can be made in Europe instead of imported.
Geely Group is a big Chinese company that owns multiple car brands. The point in this segment is that cars from Geely-related brands could be built in Volvo’s Belgium factory for Europe.
“ICE cars” means cars that run on an engine that burns fuel, like gasoline or diesel. It’s the opposite of fully electric cars.
Concept
slow death of the American auto manufacturing industry
This phrase is the host’s opinion that U.S. car manufacturing could gradually decline over time. They blame it on American brands focusing too much on the U.S. instead of competing globally.
A concept car like the Hyundai Boulder is basically a preview of what a company might build later. In this discussion, they’re saying the concept helped shape a future rugged pickup.
The Ford Bronco is an SUV built for off-road driving. It’s designed to handle rough roads and trails better than a typical car. The podcast brings it up because it’s in the same general category as other off-road SUVs.
They’re talking about two well-known off-road SUVs. The point is that the Hyundai concept is being positioned against the kind of vehicles people buy for rugged driving.
Body panels are the car’s outer parts you can see—like the hood, doors, and fenders. They’re often changed to make one model look different from another even if the “bones” are the same.
Term
four box frame
A “four-box frame” is the truck’s sturdy skeleton made of boxed metal rails. It’s the part that helps the vehicle handle heavy loads and lets manufacturers reuse the same base under different body styles.
Lime Rock Park is a race track in Connecticut. They mention it to talk about how racing teams sometimes reuse the same basic truck platform and just change the outer body.
The chassis is the main frame underneath the car that everything else mounts to. They’re saying the race trucks use a Ford base frame, then swap the outer body to look different.
Vehicle identification means figuring out which car is in the camera’s view. In this discussion, it’s done using things like the plate and other visible details.
Flock cameras are roadside cameras that try to identify cars as they drive by. The concern here is that they may collect more than just the plate number.
A privacy violation is when information about you is collected or used without your consent in a way that feels intrusive. The hosts are saying these camera systems may be doing that.
Vehicle registration is the official record that a vehicle is legally registered with the government, typically including ownership and compliance details. The segment suggests police use camera systems to check whether passing cars are properly registered.
Term
flock like camera
They’re talking about cameras mounted on cars that can record what’s around them while driving. The point is to automatically capture details like license plates.
Speed cameras are cameras that watch for cars going faster than the speed limit. If you’re speeding in a certain area, they can record it for enforcement.
The posted speed limit is the speed number on the signs you pass while driving. Cameras and tickets are based on whether you go faster than that signed limit.
Here, “data deletion” means removing information that was collected for a ticket. The point is that if it’s kept online forever, it can be misused, so the rules should force it to be removed after it’s no longer needed.
Aftermarket parts are replacement or upgrade parts made by companies other than the car’s brand. People use them to fix problems or improve how the car drives.
Bring a Trailer is a website where people buy and sell cars through auctions. The host brings it up to show how online communities can help car fans connect and trade cars.
“US specs” means the rules in the United States that car lights have to meet. Older cars followed simpler, more standardized designs, so replacing a headlight was usually cheaper.
A headlight assembly is the entire headlight unit on the front of the car. On many newer cars, if one part fails you have to replace the whole unit, not just a bulb.
This is about Subaru’s Legacy sedan. The point here is that changing a headlight on some versions can be annoying and slow because it’s hard to reach the part under the hood.
“Under the hood” means the area in front of the engine where parts are mounted. If there isn’t much room there, it can be harder to swap things like headlights.
The used car market is the market for second-hand cars. When prices rise there, it usually means buyers are paying more for older cars, often because of inflation and supply/demand changes.
LIVE
He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markin. This is Car Keys
Hello to our listeners for this week's Car Keys show with Jada Markin and Robin Leach
I'd like to start off with some
pending
potential new vehicles
discussion
in regard with regards to
Ford
and
Hyundai
Both manufacturers are have got
Pictures of
Pending vehicles that may make it to the market the first one I'd like to talk about is
what is called the
2028 Ford Ranchero and
It's if it comes the way the headline says it's going to be possibly a
Total electric truck
The Ranchero is an old Ford name
But they're using the the size frame of it is more like the Ford current Ford Maverick, which is a hybrid
Or I think a gasoline only version of a very small
Pickup, which is very successful
but with the 28 Ford Rancho pending and the number $30,000
now talked about in
2026 it probably would be a miracle J. You can comment later
Whether or not they could pull it off at $30,000 in
2028 the way the slate pickup, which is what I'm going to talk about in relation to this shortly
Was going to bring out a I think was it a $20,000?
Electric pickup build it yourself and it could go up to 30 now
I think it's coming in at 30 and it can go up to $40,000 in any event if the Ford Ranchero comes as pictured
And anywhere near $30,000 with any decent amount of
Accessories, which I presume would include electric windows
I don't know as I commented to you in an email before the show got on why anybody would ever want to buy a slate
You may now comment about that Jay because you probably have an answer. I
Don't know why anybody would want to buy a slate
I can I I get the appeal of
Building your own unique vehicle and there's something to be said about that
So that was a that's that's about the slate and we've talked about the slate
And we'll see how realistic that all is and whether the company survives and where they go and what the prices end up being
But to talk about the Ranchero
It looks neat
It looks like a fine pickup truck
But you know, you have to wonder what makes you think that all of a sudden this is gonna be a success
story from Ford, I mean look at their history in
Producing and selling electric vehicles. They started out with the Ford
Mustang Mach E which was a total marketing boo boo in my opinion
Calling it a Mustang. It's still a great vehicle and yet sales of the Mustang Mach E have plummeted and
So it's kind of
Disappeared in into oblivion. Well, I
heard that it's been a
Nick I'm not further production Jay. Have you heard anything about the production future? I don't know
Nobody's paying attention to it anymore. Anyway, right Ford
Okay, then you have the Ford lightning, which was a I think a great
Pickup truck. It looked like an f-150. It probably did everything an f-150 does
It was great and and yet they discontinued it in 20 at the end of last year, right? Correct. So
that's two flops in
Ford
Electric vehicle lineup and then they have nothing and then they're gonna come out with a ranchero
Which is gonna compete first and foremost with their own Ford Maverick, which is a great
little pickup truck so
Knowing the history of what's happened in recent years at Ford I
Cannot see this being a success and when people are gonna walk into a dealership and
Start comparing a Maverick and a ranchero
I'm curious to see if dealers and deal dealer salespeople are really gonna
promote
And and dealers can kill it just as quickly as GM deal for
Chevy dealers killed the bolt when it first came out. You and I have talked about this repeatedly and this goes back
Five years. Yes, if not 67 years, right?
Before 2020 it was 2018. I believe so I'm very skeptical and Ford itself is skeptical
They have this vehicle is being designed by a team of
Engineers and people who have been hired away from Tesla Rivian and I think there's a third company
I don't even know which one is the third one about 500
core staff and
the
Headquarters for this, you know unit is is to be in California
So and with no no direct involvement no reporting to the rest of Ford in Detroit
So even Ford knows that they can screw it up all by themselves. So, you know, yes, it looks great on paper
It looks great in a picture, too
It looks great and you read the article and it has all the attributes of being potentially successful
I agree with you that the marketing
Structure in Ford and some of the other
Manufacturers not to mention the marketing strategies of the sales people and the dealerships of these companies has been miserable with respect to
how to really get people enthusiastic to buy electric vehicles and
So the that that that part of your discussion
It's very much up in the air as to father whether or not anything new produced by any manufacturer
That wasn't the way I wanted the discussion about the rancher to go
But now that it's gone that way, you're right
On the other hand, you know to the users and the owners of these electric vehicles that came on
Martin the market and the Ford 150
Lightning is one everyone I talked to and I've talked to a dozen
Owners over the last couple of years who I've seen drive lightnings. They love those vehicles
and
You know, hopefully they won't have so many problems with them that Ford that'll make them sour on their situation
They also love the the GM
You know electric vehicle that you just mentioned and
Everybody I know that has one of those loves it
Everybody I know that has it on any electric vehicle loves it the Teslas are loved by their owners
so
The stuff the sales didn't back up the enthusiasm of the people who actually put the money down and bought them is too bad for the
Manufacturers because I think eventually Jay, you know, as you've been saying in other earlier shows over the years
Electric is the way to go
So look at what's happening in the rest of the world, right?
That's booming in China
Second hold on so China this year has come out with
650 new models so far this year
New models every day of the year. It's insane. You look at what what
They have done the Chinese manufacturers have done in Europe and other parts of the world. They're just
Flooding the markets. You look at what have what is happening in Europe?
They're starting to build vehicles there to go around all the different
barriers to
Chinese imports
Volvo just struck a deal Volvo has been building cars in Belgium for decades. They built a seven the 740 series there
They build the 850. I believe a lot of cars that came to the States were were built in their
Gantt factory in Belgium and
It is now talked about that
Volvo is going to be produced that they're investing in that factory right now and they've gotten
Investment aids from the Belgian government, but they're going to produce other other brands of
From the Geely Group, so they're going to produce Chinese cars in the Volvo factory in Belgium
And and sell them in Europe. So that's where the trend is going and meanwhile in this country and
You know, we're just going our own way and we're just we're going to keep building big American v8s and
Ice cars and and what we're finding is that the American car manufacturers are are really building
cars that are
US market specific only and in the long run, it's it's and I just read
An op-ed on that this morning
It this is this is, you know, the the slow death of the American auto manufacturing
industry
This is my gloomy
Okay
Take on the less bloom and more interesting things that I'm which I started out saying our pending vehicles
I'm going to move to the Hyundai organization
Because this same article that wrote about the Ford Ranchero
Wrote about brought out the 2030 pending Hyundai mid-sized pickup truck to take on the Tacomas the Rangers the
Colorado's and maybe a Stalantis version which has been rumored to be in the development stage
But yeah, I have yet to see anything about it in recent weeks
Wait a minute, we went to the auto show this earlier this spring and we saw the Hyundai Boulder concept
Which was a Land Rover, right, you know
Bronco Wrangler
Competitor which is also probably coming to the market and so they've taken the
Probably the Boulder concept and now made it into what looks like a very ruggedly attractive pickup truck
That may come out to challenge you for mentioned competition. It's already on the market
I
Let you say what you want about that in a moment the final
Vehicle that came out in this order in this magazine was a Lincoln eyes version of the Ford Bronco
And that even looks attractive
But to compete with the Mercedes level of these SUVs
You know, there's been all this money making these fancy
Versions of the basic models that came out and and do you think that there's there's less gloom in the the potential for these
two vehicles
Your prediction for the Ranchero to very two very different things. I think Hyundai is gonna
nail it nail it with these with this pickup truck with this medium-sized pickup truck
And and we knew from the get-go when the Boulder was presented at the New York auto show
It was clear to me and probably everybody else in the industry that
You know the pickup truck version of that was going to hit the market first. Yeah, and yes, it's gonna be a huge success
I mean, I don't know of any product that Hyundai and it's
Other brand Kia have come up with and and and encountered any sales flops
They've been doing great for the last few decades and they've been going upscale and
Yeah, I think they're gonna keep doing so so I think that product is gonna is gonna be a huge success
There's no doubt in my mind
the
The Lincoln version of a Ford Bronco
To me makes absolutely no sense. You know once in a while I am wrong about these things. So, you know
But I you know, that's that's like wearing high heels to go hiking in the
In the appellation watch out. Yeah, they just gender specific. Well
Yes, well, everybody can wear high heels or heels or you know
boots with heels
Cocktail party shoes, but it that way. I just don't see it
But I could be wrong it and also if it doesn't cost them all that much money
Deford, I mean, maybe why not but I don't think that they're gonna
They're not gonna have
Yeah
I just don't see it only the body panels would be the major difference because they've got the
Got the undercarriage of four box box
Frame all set to go. Although, you know, it's like you told me when I asked you did they really make pickup trucks for
The races like they had at Lime Rock
You said all they do is they use the Ford chassis and they just put a body a different body on the top a pickup body
So I guess that's what you're dealing with the profit potential for everyone. They sell
Would be probably pretty great because it would probably be 10 to 15 thousand dollars higher
Version for version over the existing Bronco lineup
So more profit to them
but the problem that I've seen with Ford and Lincoln is that they've had trouble numerically in in building sales competition to the
GM alternative versions like the Denali's and the the
There's their similar model lines
There they also apparently are gonna drop the course there because it's slow selling. They can't seem to get anybody interested in
So it just goes back to our conversations
We've had in the past for our listeners about the lack of
Endurability or endurance that I see and
Maybe we use Ford as the number one to be
dubious about but
The manufacturers lack of endurance in carrying what is perfectly good cars
Further if they don't numerically get the sales numbers as they want to make it work in the balance sheet
There be a comment from you Jay
Yeah, I think those companies are run them by a bunch of amateurs, but let's let's move on okay move on
You've got something to say to talk about let's go to a few different things
Flock cameras versus speed cameras. I think there's a lot of confusion. Yes
Straighten us out
well
Flock cameras first of all are not
Speed cameras. They are a lot more than that. So the flock cameras are these cameras that are
We talked about them a few weeks ago. Yeah
You know HOA's towns
Sign this contract these contracts with flock these cameras scan your license plate
and it all goes in a database and then they sell the data to
police
and and
Anybody else for that matter who wishes to access their database and it's AI powered and you can
Once you have access to the database, which means paying them money you
then can do searches and
Kind of identify vehicles
the problem is and or
The problem the fact is that the flock cameras are scanning a lot more than just the license plates
They are scanning your car the shape of the car the stickers you put on the
on the back of your cars, you know
They will well and then the owner information, of course. Yes, it all is
You know, it basically is big brother is watching quote-unquote and
pretty much
That becomes
Well, I think a violation of privacy and so I
Have a big problem with flock cameras
There is one on the way out of Millerton going south on route 22. Where is it?
I'm gonna look for the next time I go down go south and before you the south or north of the Cheryl station
It's just before you get to horny tea. It's on the right-hand side. Okay
big corner
So I try to avoid that, you know, I'm just paranoid. I mean I'm paranoid for no reason but just because well
We had version of the flock cameras for our listeners information already on the state
Police cruisers New York, Connecticut, probably other states who are really seeking to find out whether or not all the cars going by them are currently
properly registered
and
They've got that they mount these cameras, which I guess what you could call versions of flock like camera
Cameras or systems on the trunks or on the on the hoods of their vehicles
And they're they're portable because I I don't see over periods of time
That they're in use all the time, but then all of a sudden some campaign must be
Presented to them and they that on the and they state police New York recently had a whole bunch of their
Cruisers parked in their dover planes area and they all have these cameras on there the back
Yeah, that's that's becoming old technology. Yes, maybe it's accessible to
repo companies and it's available to
You know, you see those cars going down the streets just scanning plates for issuing parking tickets
On registered vehicles on register. Yes. So that is the beginning of the problem
That's where it all started and oh, you know, we're keeping those databases. There's no access. We don't divulge the information
Yeah, as soon as you have
Information in the database
Somebody's gonna have access to it or somebody can have access to it
Right, but I want to go and expand on that because it is it's part of the same people who are okay with flock cameras
Or people are getting confused, but then you have the idea of having speed cameras where
The camera is there for one reason only is to nail you if you're going over the speed limit in a certain area and here in Connecticut
there
There have been laws passed where you can have speed cameras like in work zones and
in
in and around schools and
I have no problems with speed cameras
I mean, I don't like them because I like speed, but I have no problems with them
I think it's a fair way of enforcing speed limits
As long as that data is limited to
Nailing the people going over the speed limit and I think that's just a personal opinion
That if you have a speed camera, it should be announced
And there should be a sign saying hey speed camera ahead. So if you do get nailed, you're just being you know
Not just not paying attention to to decide on the side of the road. So they have
And they have one of these areas these work zone areas on 95 north
Some some distance north of New Haven for example
I don't know how many miles it is and there are signs as you approach warning you to
Think about the 55 mile an hour or 50 mile an hour limit that this posted and be warned because
There are the speed cameras are there to nail you if you're going a certain
Number of miles over the so-called posted
speed limit and I've noticed now that
They have a little yellow light and if it's blinking the speed cameras are active if it's not blinking after you've
Watched all the signage warning you the speed cameras apparently are off for example on weekends when they're not actually construction
highway stuff
Which is designed to to want make you want to go slower so you don't hit anybody that's working in the highway lanes
But if they're gonna photograph your license plate along with the speed it's going
You're gonna have all this all the information similar to the flock, but not as much as you're suggesting
information about the driver and the car in that particular level of
Photographing your your car speeding through a speed limited speed zone
Well, that's where I think legislation is really important and and you know that information should be
Should not be available not readily available even to police forces and
That information
Should be somehow deleted as soon as the ticket has been being issued and I know you know
Once it's out there and once it's online. What's it? Once it's in the database. It's never really deleted, but there have to be some
There has to be some legislation and and there is it just has to be
It's just has to be better explained
Anyway, so much for that. Yeah
I
Went to I you know, I spent a lot of time at the track the last few weeks and
This company FCP euro, this is a company based in in Connecticut and the
manufacturer and
sell
They don't necessarily manufacturer they sell
Aftermarket parts for European cars
And they're very active in the in the sports car world and in the tuning world and
They happen to have a few car shows at Lime Rock every year and this
Yesterday this past Sunday
There was a car show. I don't know how big it was because I was I was working in
In the paddock and didn't see every car coming in but I know they had
1,800 pre-registered entries for the car show and this
weekend was about German manufacturers, so it was Porsche BMW
Mercedes and it's always a great site and
I believe it's free to the public and if there's an entry fee. It's certainly
Very low, but I think it's free and it's very quick like a lot of car shows
It's it was from 930 to 1230 and then everybody goes home and
Lots of nice cars, but it made me also think about companies like FCP euro
Like bring a trailer this on online auction site
these companies do really well because
They build an online community their websites or their platforms become
Akin to a social media platform where there is a lot of a conversation
Not only from the staff, but also from buyers and and participants
And I think that's part of their success
Jay to interrupt and for listeners. How do listeners like me?
Know what's going on there when that kind of show does not seem to get the publicity and
Local papers or newspapers around the area. Yeah, I I guess all the people that are into this stuff
Know what to do on their computers in the searching for what is going to go on anywhere in the automotive industry world
On any given weekend and any given location where they might show up
I almost forgot myself, but there is a track calendar that shows most of the events
Okay
Except some of the private events like Porsche Club does not advertise their their events
For I think insurance reasons, but
So, yeah, this is car see car show season
I know there was one at Falls Village last weekend, which I missed
Wanted to track this weekend, but you know type in the car shows and there are car shows everywhere and every weekend right much
Okay
What else do you have well, I'm gonna rant a little bit I
Lack of people who don't seem to want to pay much attention to whether or not all their lighting is working on their vehicles
And at any given moment that they're driving them, especially when it's dark out. I had a situation
Yes, this over this last weekend
It doesn't matter when the show is heard where I had it looked like a motorcycle was behind me
with very bright
Double some of the motorcycles seemed to have twin headlights right next to each other
So I said, oh, I've got a motorcycle following me
Well, it did turn out not to be a motorcycle
It turned out to be because the silhouette of the vehicle turned out to be a four-wheeled vehicle
I think it was a van it was white and it had
Nothing on the opposite side of the front end that was dark
There were there was no lighting no no parking lamp below a non working headlight at all
and I really was at the point of wanting to stop that vehicle and
Somehow get that vehicle to stop behind me and go and ask the owner if he or she
Or they had any clue about what they didn't have operating in their front-end lighting
Because it was your own hands is what you wanted to do. What you wanted to take the law into your own hands
No, I didn't want to take the law. What was I going to do? I was just going to suggest them that they kicks it
Okay, but I probably would have gotten the wrong end of the stick on that one
Yeah, probably but there are a lot of one-eyed there are a lot of one-eyed vehicles going around
Uh, for a while there used to be a lot of gm pickups that I thought they were just getting built with defective lamps
It didn't last very long
You know
Headlights used to last forever in most cars
Now the older cars many of them have one light out, but if they've got a parking lamp that is
Operating below the non working headlamp
At least you know, it's a vehicle four-wheel vehicle. Here's the problem with headlamps
They used to have the little you know, us specs used to mandate the little rectangular little
Uh headlight that you could replace for 20 bucks
Correct and do it in any parts store now
Any any modern car light if anything goes wrong
It can be 800 to over a thousand dollars just to replace because you have to replace the whole led
And the whole whole light
So sometimes they don't just plug in you got to go up under the fender. You've got to disconnect something else
I know the Subaru legacy sedans
There was at least one year. Maybe it went extended beyond that for that particular vehicle in which it took three hours
Well, a non Subaru mechanics
Could take up to three hours to try to get that headlamp out and replaced because of the the tight the tight
The lack of you know loose space under the hood where the headlamp was to be able to access it and pull it off and replace it
So how many real estate brokers does it take to change the headlight?
Too many
It's a joke that
Um, I wanted to talk about prices of used cars and new cars in the medium medium
Please do. Well, we're running out of time for that, but let's make it a point of talking about it next week
um, the car market is um
Yeah, we'll talk about the state of the car market strong in the used car market. Is it not?
It is pretty strong in the used car market. Yes
Prices are going back up in the used car market, but they are indeed
um, you know, so is inflation in general. So you got to kind of
Figure out what's what's what and what are the causes and
Why the prices are going up?
Uh, but we can talk more in detail about that next week
So, uh, I do say to owners
Sometime when you start your car up at nighttime, why don't you turn all your lights on and walk around your car before you get it
and drive off and
And and please if you find that that a lamp is out
Or one side of your car is completely dark
Uh, get whatever is not working fixed
And uh, with that, I guess, uh, it will be car keys for this week with jay demarkin and robin leech
Car keys with robin leech and jay demarkin is produced at the facilities of w h d d 91.9 f m
robinhoodradio.com
Sharon connecticut
About this episode
Rumors and reality collide as the hosts talk through a possible “2028 Ford Ranchero” as an all-electric truck, including talk of pricing and how its size could mirror the Ford Maverick. They debate whether Ford’s EV strategy can recover, pointing to marketing missteps, dealer influence, and hiring talent from Tesla/Rivian. The conversation broadens to vehicle surveillance cameras like Flock, then shifts to practical ownership issues—headlight repair costs, tight access jobs, and rising used-car prices.
