The Toyota Camry is a regular family car (a midsize sedan) made for everyday driving. People talk about it because it’s generally reliable and comfortable to own for years. It’s also a common car, so many owners have experience with routine maintenance.
A lease is like renting a car for a few years with a contract. You usually have limits like how many miles you can drive, and going over can cost extra.
Here, “mileage” means how many miles you’re allowed to drive during the lease. If you drive more than the limit, the lease company can charge you extra per mile.
“Used car values” means what a used car is worth when you try to sell it. The point here is that some cars keep their value better than others, especially when they’re well cared for.
A “trade” is when you give your current car to the dealer and they apply its value toward your next purchase. The better shape your car is in, the more you typically get.
An extended warranty is extra coverage you buy to help pay for certain repairs after the original warranty ends. The catch is that it usually has rules about what it will and won’t pay for.
They’re talking about how much the car is really worth, not just the warranty. If the car is already a good deal (or a bad deal), that changes whether extra coverage is worth it.
Alfa Romeo is an Italian car brand. The speaker is talking about how older Alfa models had a reputation for problems, especially with rust and reliability, and that the situation has improved.
The Toyota Tacoma is a popular pickup truck. The point here is that it usually keeps its resale value well, so buying new can make sense if you might sell later.
Book value is a pricing estimate for what a car is “supposed” to be worth. The host is saying a dealer might claim they’re giving you more than that, but they may make up the difference with other charges in the sale.
A “race-ready” car is set up so it can go compete. It usually has the right safety gear and track-focused setup, rather than being just a normal street car.
Term
club levels
“Club levels” means local racing events run by car clubs. It’s not the very top professional series, but it’s still real racing with rules and competition.
“Bulletproof reliable” is a strong way of saying the car rarely breaks. For race cars, it means it can handle being driven hard repeatedly with minimal problems.
A “boxer” engine is an engine where the cylinders move opposite each other, like punching. Here they’re talking about Porsche’s boxer-engine era and how those cars were part of the track groups.
An air-cooled engine uses air flowing over the engine to keep it from overheating. In this segment, they’re pointing out that many of the cars on track had this older-style cooling setup.
They’re explaining how this Porsche club weekend worked: it was basically a race event where only Porsche clubs were running. They also mention the races are usually short—around 25 minutes.
The Mazda Miata (MX-5) is a small two-seat sports car designed for driving enjoyment. It’s known for being light and easy to handle, which is why many people like it. It’s also a car that a lot of owners keep for years.
A turn signal is the vehicle’s indicator lights used to communicate your intended direction to other drivers. The host criticizes drivers for not using it early enough before changing lanes or turning.
“Self-driving” means the car does the driving for you. In this discussion, they’re saying what Audi is doing is more like lane help, not full self-driving where you can ignore everything.
They mean the car helps keep itself in the correct lane. It uses what it sees from the road markings, and it works better when the lane lines are easy to see.
They’re saying this isn’t meant to replace the driver—it’s there to help prevent accidents. If you get distracted for a moment, the car can help steer you back so you don’t hit another car or go off the road.
They’re saying they’ve seen this kind of lane/road-keeping help on Audi cars. And in their experience, it doesn’t always stay dependable for long periods.
They’re saying the fire happened in a town in Massachusetts. They’re not sure if the story will spread beyond that local area.
LIVE
He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markins. This is Car Keys
Hello for this week's show of Car Keys with Jada Markins and Robin Leach
Things are happening in the gasoline world, although I don't think it's happening very quickly in our listening area
a few notable
New pricing situations is at a Costco in Chicago and
Colorado gas was found to be at 359 nine a gallon. That's regular
Over in Westport, Mass, which is where I am talking to you from this morning
Gases as low as 383 a gallon
404 at the Cumberland Farms and right back up at
454 39 at a shell station in in Westport, Mass, so it's all over the map, but it is coming down
It was coming down it and still is a little bit because it came
At one place here in Westport, Mass
So that's good news for those who are in the area where the gas prices really made a
Leap into the under four gallon at four dollars a gallon range
I do not know how widespread beyond Colorado that might be
Diesel I'm not so sure
Jay might like to chime in on the diesel if anybody else besides Jay is interested
Well, apparently not too many people. Although there are quite a few trucks still running on diesels on diesel
549 the last time I checked which was some time later last in the later part of last week
And that's that for gasoline for our listeners to know about in the Northwest Connecticut listening area and
Other things that are going on the automobile industry seems to have all sorts of deals going on
I've seen zero percent financing for up to five years
That's zero percent interest for financing new purchases and some
manufacturers
advertisements on the on the
television and even the radio
That would be in lieu of probably cash discounts
Because that's where they'll recapture their profits
But I do not know what the transaction price can be negotiated with these zero percent offers of some manufacturers
They have of course all these offers
That are offering nice percentage rates above zero percent. There are some one point nine percent zero
Interest rates there are
3.9 percent interest rates. I do not know what triple a is offering, but I think it's somewhere in the four to five percent range
If you're a triple a member
But
Watch out because you can get loans now for up to seven years
Your vehicle will not be worth a whole lot of money in seven years
So if you haven't paid it off in that time frame, you may be what we some people would call
Underwater in terms of your loan to value of your vehicle ratio
Can I comment about that? Yeah, I'd like to comment on that
And I've said it for a while. I don't really see a problem with long-term loans
For several reasons one cars are way better than they don't they ever were
They last a lot longer
And I'm not so sure. I mean I still look at the the depreciation of a car at and we see, you know
different publications
analyzing the values after five years of car of cars and
Where their their value is and you know, I just look at rule of thumb
Five years fifty percent value and that's actually pretty good and after five years even on a seven-year
Term loan
I mean, I don't have a depreciation table in front of me, but you should not be underwater
Having said that yes, some vehicles depreciate more others less
and and
The reality is while you get into a seven-year loan deal
And you may be stuck with the car for seven years and that your car needs may change over the course of the seven years
Or you may not want to live with a seven-year-old car
But you know trading in trading in your car usually allows you to get out of a deal and
Into a next one. I mean
There are all sorts of offers about getting out of your deal, too
Some of the main of the dealerships will say we will pay off the loan on your old
Car and all sorts of things somehow they're going to recapture some of that in whatever deal
They make with you as a purchaser of one of their vehicles. So and
It makes me think of a little story. I read this week or last week
About a an Uber driving. I don't know if an Uber driver and I don't know if you saw that
Robin an Uber driver least the Camry for three years
and
There was a buyout option and in the end
Instead of paying for the extra miles because the car had like 200,000 miles or just an incredible number of miles
the the
The person who had been leasing the car ended up
Only paying out 3000 dollars. So the buyout asterisk on on on the lease deal is
worth
scrutinizing
Because there are ways of and there are some lease deals where you can get away with not paying for the extra miles
even if you go over I
Would be interesting to know about in a detail, but because I agree when you the lease
Deals on cars are very attractive
But you've got to watch the ads especially in the TV ones because you can't read the small print anyways
But they have ultra low prices for leases and some I've seen GM products
And particularly pickup trucks where you it seemed I these are not exactly correct figures
But let's just say they show you a GM pickup truck
but a particular model etc and they say
Ultra low lease price of
389 dollars a month now
I don't know what that's for three or four years or whatever
But I can't read the mileage by the time the ad disappears on my screen to see what the limitation of ultra low
Matt my lease is but I would say that have to be under 12 to 15,000 miles a year
Which seems to be the magic sort of regular three year
lease
offers that
Off that that appear for cars in general
Reusing 36,000 miles maybe 45 in some cases, but mostly 36,000 miles for three years before that triggers the extra
Sense per mile over that particular mileage
Back to the use car value situation J. I've been concerned and listeners
I've been concerned about what the value of my
2014 Jeep Cherokee is with 130,000 miles which looks
Not showroom new, but I got to tell you the paint job on this vehicle has
Outsigned what I thought it would look like
11 years now 12 years into its ownership and
It is declared by Kelly blue book apparently to be worth between
4500 dollars I
Think I think I think we've got to revise what use car values are J
Because I think as you can't revise what you think our values
Wait a minute to use car values have got to go up with that with the longevity factors
That are now in these cars that are built if you take good care of them
And that means if you drive 12 or 15,000 miles a year and you go up to seven or eight years
You may have a 100000 miles, but to have it tell you that you're only worth 2000 dollars on a trade
When the car looks brand new I wouldn't sell this Jeep that I have now to anybody for under
7,000 five to seven and I probably couldn't sell it there
But it's worth more to me to keep it running keep the oil changes up the maintenance
That's why you have a dozen cars not that has nothing to do with it
So but here's a here's a point of this comment for our listeners
The point is use cars are being underrated in terms of value once they get over five years old
Given what I think you would agree as a congeneral condition of well-maintained cars
The general values should be revised to no the you can't revise the value
The value is determined by the market. The reality of things is that certain cars
Depreciate more and certain cars depreciate less
Well, let's go to the Porsche and and I hate to break it. No, and that's a bad example
I get we can get to that in a second, but take a take your Jeep Cherokee and take a Honda CRV or Toyota
RAV4 and the depreciation levels. I hate to break it to you will be different
And I'm not I'm not
Situation even if they were to raise all of them by a percentage of 10 or 15 percent higher
And that's appropriate appropriate, but so the point you are getting I'm gonna get back to this
to the point there's a lot of advertising going on in phone solicitations to my numbers
mail solicitations and mailboxes and
Advertisement on radio stations
serious radio stations TVs about
Extended warranty programs that are offered and what they don't tell you is and this is what I said in some earlier shows and
listen wisely
What I tell you if your car is worth less than the cost of the
cost of the
The repair that might be needed and that would be if it was engine or transmission or something that was in the
You know five-digit range or high four-digit range
They don't pay for that even though they don't they claim that they will you won't have to pay for repairs
If you buy one of our monthly plans or annual plans going forward
Hold on because we've talked about this before but let's get back to the value of the cars themselves and how you approach
buying a car and
And and you know how I feel about this. I've I I I don't like buying new cars. I like finding
freshly used cars
And and I know that some cars are undervalued and I'm not gonna get into the
Debate whether your Jeep Cherokee is undervalued for good reason or not and you know, there's you know
there is a certain little SUV that I like out there that when you look at the numbers is
Goes for less money than its equivalents
and and and and
I'm not gonna name it or else people are gonna run out and buy it and make the values go up and I'll be
Before you don't buy what yeah, but but okay case in point
It is we're talking about alphas and and the alphas have Alfa Romeo has a bad rep
Reputation
You know and it goes back to the 70s when we had the first alphas come into this country
They were rust buckets. They they just they just did not you know, they were not reliable
That has completely changed
But the fact of the matter is it's still a vehicle sold in in in low numbers
and I
Personally like the vehicle and it doesn't matter, you know, and I know it's I know from the research
I've done that it is a a
Reliable vehicle so it is on my shopping list and I can get a three or four year old one for less than 50%
of the five-year-old
So
significantly so so
So that's what I'm looking for on the other hand going and buying a used Honda CRV or used Toyota Tacoma
It's crazy. Those are the vehicles you buy new because they keep their value
In such a way that if you do want to trade them, you'll get your money back
And if you want to keep them, they'll drive till the end of time
So that's the reality
Okay, that's that's that's continue one more level here because I got on my email this morning a
Commentary question mark to you
From a dealership that's selling a specific brand of vehicles about saying have you checked your used car price lately?
it may have gone up and
You know, that's to the heart of what I've just been saying to our listeners about
You know, whose opinion is that is that a book spin in is that a dealer trying to lure you in?
well, guess what and they're gonna give you an extra thousand dollars over book value because
It's hidden somewhere else in the sale of the vehicle that they want to sell you
You know, well that email certainly got your attention. That was the whole point of the email
And I've been getting several emails from the same dealership over the months
And well because they love they love you. They'd love to see you run into the dealership. I have me on their mailing list
So I'm sure I'm not exclusive to this offer. Okay. I'm sure you're not
Anyways, let's move on you must have a list of things to talk about that our listeners would like to listen to more than this
um
Yeah, talking about the industry
Say what any into news of interest in the racing car world
Other than the fact I just spent a two days weekend at a big Porsche
Club race weekend here
at Lime Rock um
and I was kind of shocked to see the number of
Fairly new and people who are in the know will know but Porsche 992 cup cars. These are
Porsches newest customer
Race ready car not
Street legal cars
I don't know what the exact price is but they are not cheap and there are a bunch of running them running at club levels
And it's just mind boggling
But the same token I talked to a prep shop who who had over a dozen Porsches that they were working on this weekend
and
And three or four of those new cup cars were under their tent
And the owner of the shop was telling me that yeah, they're great. There's nothing we have to do to them
They're just bulletproof reliable
And and you just start them and and go race them
And anyway, it was it was
interesting to see and it's
Interesting to see how reliable those new race cars are and if those race cars are reliable
You can be sure that the cars on the streets are are even more reliable. I think yes, I agree
Tell our listeners including me, of course
About how many cars are allowed if there's a limitation of the number on a track with cars of that value
At the same time or are there rules about how you drive your cars around in that?
When there are several cars on the track during a club event on a race course
You've been on a racetrack. The rules are always the same, right? You go in the same direction
Preferably, uh, you try to stay on track and there's a certain number of rules and there's uh
Flags and and you have to know the meaning of the flags and they're colored
And in track days that are not racing
There is there are usually rules that may vary from club to club
On where to pass and if you can pass in in a in the run group that you're in
so if you go to
Um and and to take the case of Porsche Club. They're very strict on on on how they allow you to progress from one group to another
So if you take your new or old Porsche
Uh to a Porsche Club event and it's your first day on track
You're going to be riding with an instructor in a group that's going to be just you know
tooling around the track at medium speeds
And and learning the basics of driving on the track. So they're not turning you loose necessarily as you're
They are not turning you loose turning and and there are you know, I over the years
I've seen certain organizations that have a more liberal approach
uh and
Having run events myself in in in the karting world
Running thing loosely is is never a really good idea in motorsports from a state some from a safety standpoint
So, uh
Yeah, that's a long a long way around it now the number of cars you can have on track
Back to this past weekend one of the classes was uh
And I don't know the the groups and the classifications of all the Porsche clubs
You know what they have in different what their different classes are but
One group had out of 30 cars that were all on track together
Had a bunch of old 944s like maybe a half a dozen and the rest of them were
Early generation boxers, uh and the boxer came out in 97
So they they're 25 30 year old cars and then there was a group with
Air-cooled engines and there were also over 20 cars on track. So those were sizable
groups to be running, uh club races
Um, and it makes you you know reflect on how old we are because you're looking at 50 year old
Race cars in a case of air-cooled 9 11. What's the age of all the drivers?
well
At the off off the times, uh, but not always older than the cars, uh,
Yeah, uh, but not always. I mean they're they're younger drivers, but you know
uh
Anyway, we're we're we're going on a
On a tangent here with the yeah, I just want to get an idea of you you said there were the
Exciting or surprising number of 992s there at the track
Yeah, all out running around with their owners as opposed to just being no, no, they were racing
They were racing they they were racing and and and they're you know, they're very very fast
Uh race cars, um, wasn't a sanctioned race. It was a Porsche. Porsche event race, right?
It's a it was a race. It was a race weekend Porsche club and a bunch of those car clubs organized their own races
Uh, it just so happens at a Porsche club event. There are only Porsches racing. So
So how long are those races? Are they are they half hour or are they an hour?
Yeah, usually around a half hour 25 minutes half hour or something like that. Yeah, um, but yeah, so
Okay
driving any improvement in the driving uh
Uh
Driving comments for us to listen to because I'm over in massachusetts now
Oh poor you
Well, I'm talking about
It's a poor me except that temperature-wise it hasn't been about 75 degrees for three days here
and uh
That temperate being on near the Atlantic Ocean, which is what I am looking at as I stare away from the
Our our computer top our desk computers
Is right out in the front and there's a cool breeze blowing and uh
So we have people going around in there with their tops
Down in cool weather as opposed to maybe the tops up with air conditioning running for convertibles
For example in the hot weather of where you're broadcasting from
Uh
And what we are going to experience when we're back when I'm back in that area
Coming this coming week, uh beyond this show
so I always feel very sorry for the
Guys with very little hair on their heads
driving their
Very expensive convertibles in the sun in the middle of the day
with the top down
and uh
Maybe
I just hope they spray a sunscreen on the top of their heads
I just find it
Not very pleasant to be riding in a convertible in the middle of the day on the hot summer day
Uh, I'd be and there's a great. I mean on the other hand
convertibles
Uh in in the fall convertibles in these on the summer evening are absolutely a great experience
many many years ago. I had a a
uh
Uh
Mazda miata like a lot of people had and still have
and the uh canvas roof, uh
You know, you kept it on during the summer and it did very little to keep you cool inside because the ac was kind of iffy
Plus basically sucked
24 20 horsepower out of the 110 horsepower you had so now you could barely climb up smith hill
But also there was no insulation in that roof and uh, it was a hot black
Final rooftop and it was not much better than having no roof
Having said that I still think that the the first and you know all generations of the maza miata are great
Uh fun car to have
It is in your garage. I agree with you on there. I think it's well get one
You should get one. Oh, you're too tall to fit
Your driving habits over here in uh eastern massachusetts are not much different than what we've been complaining about the driving habits around our listening area
Uh, I've noted the lack of uh, the use of the turn signal
And at the appropriate time before somebody decides they're going to make a turn off the travel lane
You may be in behind them or in front of them is still
Uh, the the appreciation, you know the the sensitiveness of driving
Uh
Plightness has just gone downhill
Uh, and it seems not to be limited to our listening area where I think we think that's gone downhill
Um
Other than that, you know, nobody's speeding out registry through the town of west port mass, which is where I'm in
Well, nobody's
You're speeding through solsbury and lakeville at speeds that
With the crosswalks that have these blinking flashing lights in our listening area
Are very valuable to be paying attention to when you're coming through our listening area towns
Whether it be in new york or massachusetts or even, you know, our part of connecticut
Because people are stepping out from parking that's on two sides of both of the roads of the roadways going through these
villages and very often
They are standing behind the
The hood of a vehicle that is parked right at those crosswalks. This is sort of a safety thing
I've jumped into for our listeners
and
It's very difficult and if they the people do not push the buttons to make those lights flash
They are very hard to see and it can be make driving through our villages quite dangerous
at times
Especially for the pedestrians, especially for the pedestrians. That's correct. And yet
They rarely lift their noses when they cross the street. Well
That's another thing and and that goes for the pedestrians walking along the roads too
Not only do they not know that they should be walking on the lane facing the oncoming traffic in many cases
And they're walking with the traffic, but they have their faces in their phones and they're and and
They don't look up
And bicyclists now I notice even can be bicycling with their phones
in their hand in one hand
and
It's just it's just you know, it's getting too dangerous to to do this kind of walking and
Bicycling around without paying attention to the fact that they are not very visible in many
parts of our area
Uh with our winding roads our trees overhanging and you know and not being very highly visible
In higher visibility clothing
So
Yes
I want to jump to something else. Good involve safety too. I just read an article
Uh
Over the weekend about a 95 year old
Who was praising the self-driving feature in his tesla?
And arguing that as we get older and we get more frazzled driving
um and and and
Having a harder time to cope with our surroundings
That the self-driving feature was a great aid
And that maybe that would allow
people
Who are getting at the age where?
uh
They might turn in their keys
To be able to keep driving for a period of time and I immediately thought about you
Not only because you're getting closer to that age
But because you have this uh
Aversion to
Self-driving uh, I do
features
And I I think maybe by the time you get to be 95 those features will be so great that you will even
Be convinced that they are actually a plus
Well to that point, uh, you know is is there a chance that I might become totally
uh
Dependent or accepting of of self-driving features as I get older that age
I must say that
I have been
A strong objective to self-driving cars. I cannot see myself
I've got cars that now are are helping me stay in the proper lane
automatically
And I test I test it the Audi is the vehicle that has it and I test it
periodically by taking my hands off the wheel and watch it weave
Or or move from left to right as it may be wandering towards one side of the roads lines or the center lines
and uh
While Audi does not claim there they have self-driving capability. They certainly don't
Try to do that
I find that
You can let your hands stay off the wheel on generally straightish road
And it'll hold it'll stay within the two lines if they are visibly available for the cameras to see the lineage
So that feature on on the car is not about
Self-driving self-driving
It's a safety feature you're driving a car for whatever reason you get distracted for
Uh a nanosecond and that little
Uh pulled back into your lane can mean the difference between hitting a car head on or going into the ditch
And actually staying in the road. So it is a safety feature
And it's a safety feature, but I've noticed it and use it as such sometimes it works
Safely for about two or three times and then it wanders again and it and it doesn't that's when you have to make sure that
I know it's not a self-driving feature
But it doesn't it's not constantly able to do it for mile after mile
In a straight ahead road. I found at least at the Audi level
The Audi vehicles that I it has that feature
Jeep has that feature and one of their models of the Cherokee and uh not on the new one
I don't think but the older ones and uh, I
Have one of those in in the fleet of four that I am responsible for having
in our my family
And it is not particularly a good feature for that. So
Who knows whether I'll accept that the comment of the article whose person said, you know, he he or she felt that there was
Going to be able to keep that person able to take a car on the road
When he or she should not be driving a car without it
It's just uh help
help
right
All right. Well, I think this pretty much wraps it up. I do too one thing
I I noticed we had a news blip over in my area this morning and said a
Electric car caught fire and was the result caused two houses to burn to the ground
It was parked between them
I they I could not see what the brand of the car was not that it's important, but I do not know how
National this this particular story may make it beyond the the local
Massachusetts town to which it happened
But it's frightened me because two houses burned to the ground nobody got killed they get out of the houses
But how one car
electrically
Who would apparently caught fire?
Caused two houses to burn the ground is beyond me and the details weren't enough to be able to figure out how that happened
We'll figure it out next week
Okay, and by next week it is car keys with jay demarkin and robin leech and thank you for listening
car keys with robin leech and jay demarkin is produced at the facilities of
w h d d 91.9 f m robin hood radio dot com sharon connecticut
About this episode
Gas prices and financing promos set the stage, with hosts warning that long loan terms can leave you “underwater” as depreciation hits. They break down how lease ads can look cheap until mileage limits and overage charges kick in, and how used-car values can be underrated once cars pass five years—depending on the model and maintenance. The conversation then pivots to track-day rules, Porsche Cup reliability, and driver-assistance tech that’s safety-focused, plus local safety stories involving crosswalk visibility and an electric-car fire.
