Car Keys with Robin Leech and Jay de Marcken – March 9, 2026

He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markin. This is Car Keys.

Good morning to our show of Car Keys with Jada Markin and Robin Leach. We are in the middle of a maybe a hopefully

consistent spring thaw as this show is being done.

We have mud all over the place as the frost is coming out of the

grounds from the dirt roads to the under the pavements and lots of lots of pavement and

road surfaces

Sins are adjusting to the warming temperatures and one of the amazing things that I have noted as I've been driving around on Northwest corner

Many miles of which and this includes some of New York State were paved

in

2025 and let me tell you the new pavement

More silent tire for noise and smoother riding for many of us, but it is astounding

What's going on right now in in on the paved roads in terms of ground shift underneath the asphalt?

It's causing fissures in some of the newer paved road the older newer paved roads. It's causing

Cracks across maybe where there was once concrete under them. I don't know

That your tires are and this is that some of the new pavements are doing this

There are cracks that are going

perpendicular to the direction you're traveling on the road and then there's some fissures that are opening up on either the northbound

Lane or the east, but you know the southbound Lane and a north south road or east and west

I don't know whether they are going to settle down and

Merge back so that the cracks disappear or whether they're going to require

a

Very

Some repairs going on

The dirt roads as we know we have many around our listing area

Sharon is full of them

They put mud signs mud season signs up and many of them Salisbury has fewer of them

Matter of fact, I'm not sure we have

Any dirt town roads? Oh, yes, we do River Road along the Houston River is a dirt road

but

The and driveways my driveway is a mess of deep treading tread marks

In the mudded areas of the non paved section of the driveway, and I'm gonna have to roll it

Or why don't you pave it once and for all?

You haven't given me the money yet

But in any way

Going beyond this topic

Triple a has got some two topics that I picked up on I get a lot of emails from triple a

on my email because I'm a member and one of them is

There are

Title there are a ton of tricks you can try to maximize your miles per gallon

I was reading some of these and Jay will get a good kick out of it

I'm not gonna read all 36 because many these don't pertain to

The drivers around our corner as far as I'm concerned

One of them that I say here it says avoid buying gas when there's a delivery truck at the station

Well, that that may be an old wise tale that may or may not be relevant today

But they say recent delivery stirrup sediment which can clog your filter

Causing your engine to possibly stall. I

Valid point to

Follow if you knew that the tanks at the stations around where we live were older and or near empty

I'm not sure that

deliveries delivers sediment

In the delivery portion of the fuel and they fill the tanks up

So if the tanks are new, I'm not sure there's a lot of sediment in in the tanks, but I

sometimes follow this

Suggestion, but

Sometimes I don't because I'm not really concerned about that happening as much as it might have been in older in the days

In the past when the tanks were old it hadn't been replaced

I just think it's a good idea to stay away from gas stations when they're delivering fuel

But that for a whole other reason, but yeah, that's gonna be a safety factor that may be well

Maybe well thought about

So hey Robin about AAA. So what does what does AAA sell? What do they do? What do they cover?

Okay, I think I keep it relatively simple there

I didn't know about the two levels of towing

Distance that you that that were very different when you first signed up to AAA and the first few years

Unfortunately, I didn't need it. Well, I found out about it when I needed the towing and found out that the the basic

Membership level only got you five miles of towing free after which there was a charge of 25 cents a mile or something

So I certainly up my membership to the whatever status I've got now

It gives you a hundred miles of towing range, which is significant for people around here

Especially if you want your vehicle towed to and it's new and you want your vehicle towed to a

Deal ship that you purchased your vehicle from or that services your particular brand of car

Because we don't have we only have what we have one dealership within

Five miles of some of our villages and that's in Millington, New York

other everyone else is

For dealers is 25 miles away or more

So five miles doesn't get you much around here except it will get you to some service stations

If you are lucky enough to have broken down or needed tow within five miles of the independent repair places around of which

We have several excellent places to use

But back to your question

you you if you are a member of

Triple a you can get a discount a

credit card from a

Gas lean supplier shell in this instance and you can say 10 cents a gallon if you purchase your gas

with

Your shell card that you get for triple a

So how much you pay for it? What is your triple a?

Subscription it's about $60 a year. I'm not quite sure

I'm out auto renew now, so I'm not paying but it's not it's not too expensive as

But it's much more valuable. I found I mean if you're if you're getting your own tote with their own

Free towing outies. I don't know about BMW and Mercedes and I don't know about domestic

Car makers whether that you you get the free towing for three or warranty period with Ford Chevy or

Stalantis well that was going to be my next question is you know you you have some of those

Toe rescue packages available both through insurance companies, you know on your regular insurance policy and or like you mentioned warranty

Or you know extended warranties that you have on your vehicles or even basic

Returns so, you know I my only thing I guess is to

Make sure you're not being you're not getting

Overinsured and and paying for the same insurance in two or three different places. Correct

But it pays for people who buy cars to know what they're getting in this. Yes, and

Know how to use it. I do not know whether that it's just you know whether they're any more effective

I have never found

When you've had to use triple a that you've got quick

Service I have found that most terms or timelines from the call to the actual arrival of the vehicle to

Save you is round is around an hour

Now that's gonna that's gonna differ depending on where you're living in whether you're living in an urban area where there are lots of gas stations

And maybe more than one triple a supplier of triple a services

We have one but we had one in Canaan. I believe

Arnold's used to be a triple a member and I think they have discontinued their services under the triple a moniker

the last time I had to use

Triple a the truck came from New York State. I believe it was like 40 minutes away and

So that was the nearest triple a person that could get to me in an hour or so

So you don't know how long it's gonna take you with the Audi system or the Mercedes system or with any other non triple a system

It depends on who's a member of those particular

manufacturers

Toeing plants

Same way with a triple a

Well, I can tell I can tell you that it's if you're really paying like $60 a year, which seems very little to me

I can tell you it's a lot less than what I'm about to pay here in Europe for

Equivalent service and

I'm not on my little car that I have here and

Because that amount is like well over 200 bucks. So

well

As cars get over it's probably wise to have have a coverage plan because

Around here in our rural driving zone

When you break down with a flat tire or are you run out of gas and you want to try to use those

I do not know that trying to call triple a to get five gallons of gas delivered to you is necessarily a

Efficient use of the triple a system since we don't have triple a

members

within

Well, I don't know how close to closest one is maybe there's one at Jack's

service down 22 down

South of Armenia

Yeah, you may know where that place is I do and and

Yeah, I I call them for a friend over on a on a weekend a few weeks ago and

That's directly

Yes, not anyway

All right, so triple a get triple a

Save money with self-service. Yes many places

Have well

Many places not around here. Fortunately have cash versus credit card pricing the credit card pricing is 10 cents above the cash

Price at many places, you know, not going on 22 didn't down

Towards 684 if you read the signs carefully, you'll find that there are two prices for each grade of gas

One is 10 cents more for using credit cards

So if you can pay for cash, you can say 10 cents a gallon as we are brought the broadcasting this show during a spike in both oil

Diesel and gasoline prices

That may be something you wouldn't want to focus on if you're really sensitive about the

Prices that have grown up in some cases over 30 cents in the last

Several days from the time this show was done

And if they're still climbing

It's 339 in Sharon. It's 327 in Lakeville right now because

Mobile which is the Lakeville sorts and shell have not raised their prices at the same in the same time frame

Although they both

serviced by the same delivery wholesale delivery

firm

Company in Tarrington, Connecticut

They'd say

Keep your eyes open to find good prices at the pump. Why am I doing that? I do not know how many people really care around here

We have two stations within six miles of each other

They are within usually 10 to 10 cents of each other. It's not identical or a couple of cents cheaper

Because they are service deliver they sell products from the same wholesale delivery

I'm not sure that the independent names of the fuels are really priced

Because of different cost levels at the wholesale level or not

It's voodoo economics in my head

Well, it's still only half the price of what

People in Europe. Yes, I know that we're at around two euros a liter which is

two euros is arguably a little less than two dollars, but a

Leader is the three point eight liters in a in a gallon. So basically

There's still paying twice as much as we are

What is there Jay because diesel's hit for 89 in some stations here as well and as low as 409 in others

I've noted that because I know you have that turret. I'm all about you hunting for lower diesel fuel

Diesel prices here are I you know, I don't know where they are

Fossil to gasoline all the time. I thought cheaper in Europe. It is now

You know decades ago it was not but ever since they've been trying to get diesels off the roads

They have price diesel

Like I think it's like 20 30 percent, you know, give or take over the price of gasoline

But you know speaking of gas prices, I'm always appalled when driving cars that require

premium gas

Premium gas is actually I mean, I haven't been I've been out of the country for a week or two, but

Diesel is usually cheaper than premium gas

So there's sometimes no rhyme or reason to these prices, but they are gonna go up and Sharon

That is not the case, but that's you're right

It's usually been cheaper than premium gas here in the US as I've seen to recall

But let's go back to a few of the other things. I don't know now. It says keep windows closed and traveling highly highway speed

This is all about wind

Turbulence around a vehicle causing to use more fuel if the wind if the

Air does not travel smoothly over and around the configuration of your car

You know if it's hot out. I like I don't like air conditioning. I'm gonna I don't play with this is is worrying about

Using more gas if I drive your side window and or another window is open in the summertime situations

Think well, let me tell you something

My only experience is driving, you know, I've never measured the difference between

Windows open but hold on but between I've driven a convertible over

over a thousand miles a few years ago and half of that was

With the top down and half of that was with the top up and the whole time I was driving at

highway speeds even with with the top down and and

The increase in fuel burn so the mileage went really way down when the when the roof was open

There's no doubt about that

Maybe that may well well be true and and thank you for

Commenting on that, but if you're gonna have a convertible you that's what you want to do. That's true

They do say this keep windows closed and traveling. They say open windows called the our dynamic drag

Which consumes fuel well a lot of things control our dynamic

Drag and one of the other ones that does is improperly inflated tires

I think there's more drag if the tires are under inflated. I do not know about overinflation causing drag

But no they just that creates wear on the tires. It's going to tires

And they also say okay gas mileage usually decreases rapidly over 60 miles an hour that may well be

Effectively true. I do the cruise control lot

Which is another thing that suggests and I know and I and I also are monitoring my instant fuel

I have the capability of monitoring my instant miles per gallon

Feature in my jeep or the average miles per gallon on many of my cars

And if I set the if I set the reset the trip computer to zero when I start out

I can monitor the miles per gallon over that particular distance of a trip

But I don't I'm not paying attention to many of these 36 items that

Triple A has gotten their recent publication online or otherwise

They say if you have a manual transmission, don't keep your left foot on the clutch pedal while driving J

The slightest pressure puts a mechanical drag on components wearing them down prematurely and therefore using more gas also a

Law avoid driving along rough roads whenever possible

Is this a triple A or an ARP?

Magazine you're reading no, I'm reading online from triple A

Okay. Hey, so I wanted

Go ahead a little bit about I you know, I was on a road trip just a few days ago came back from

Switzerland back to Belgium where I still am for a few days

With only a five-hour difference. I just learned

time zone wise

and

What was I gonna say I drove I drove about two-thirds of the way back on that trip and

I thought about you because I

Did not use cruise control, but it is highly recommended to do so the speed limits have become

incredibly

Strictly enforced here in Europe and even with all the electronic gizmos to detect radars

You there's just so many of them that you're you're basically

Driving the speed limit and this is going back to my point that if you're gonna have speed limits and yes, they do work

Making them

Enforcing them in an equal way

Really is the only way to go and the only way for people to follow speed limits

And and you know what it was very relaxing except for the fact that I was constantly monitoring my right foot

And speed limits are somewhat reasonable

Except in cities you go down to you know, you go through little towns whether it's Switzerland Belgium France, Germany

And you're down to 30 kilometers an hour in that in the

18 miles an hour and which brings me back to thinking about you know when we go through towns

that's so much shan, but if you think of

Salisbury or Millerton and

During you for instance, you know 18 miles an hour is or 20 miles an hour is not that unreasonable and

You do get used to

Jay especially in our small town Salisbury for example and Millerton for example where they have these

blinking lights that people push to

Cross the walkways. I think you should go through these and you've got cars parked on both sides of the road

So sometimes you can't see the people stepping out until they stepped out in front

You know beyond the cars the width of the cars parking on either side of the crosswalks

I think the 18 to 20 miles an hour would be a much more practical way and I watch people speed through

You know they come cruising into the Salisbury for example coming from East East or West

And you know you really do need to break and step down

Especially when you do go through the middle of Salisbury where the crosswalk is very has very poor

Pedestrian visibility in my opinion

So that's not a bad idea

On the other on the other hand in Switzerland we went through little towns

You know in the mountains in the Alps

Where between these little towns and these twisty roads I was driving probably I don't know somewhere around

30 35 miles an hour 50 k's and then I get to I enter a little town and I see a sign

Speed limit as you're entering town 60 k's and I'm going what in the world?

How could I have even been going faster than 60 k's before I entered town?

So the Swiss seems to seem to have up in the mountains seem to be pretty liberal with their speed limits

Well, let's talk about the speed limits versus the the the enforcement limits

Because I've talked on this show several times that I go roughly eight miles per hour above the post at speed limits

Going doing my trip no tolerance

No tolerance

Yes, I'm in Europe no tolerance. No tolerance. Well, I've learned I bring this up because when I was in Italy

Some time ago

And I rented a car and I talked a little bit about it

I was trying to travel with the traffic and you know, you know how this I don't know how well

You know about what the speed limit enforcement in Italy is it doesn't sound like it's as onerous as it is in

Belgium and maybe Germany and France

No, Italy Italy is a little different. Yeah, well, you know, you have the auto strata and it was just sort of like the the Autobahn, right?

and people the Italians are crazy drivers anyways and

They they like their high-performance vehicles and they and they make use of it

but

The the opposed to speed limits is usually around 100 to 110 k kilometers an hour

It's mostly the standard to be a hundred which is what 60 ish in our in our miles per hour and

There were areas where yes, you knew there was a radar

Event ahead because of either a blinking sign or other some or maybe you knew the drivers knew about something going on and you

And you paid attention to the speed limit, but otherwise, you know, it wasn't it wasn't a limitless alternative

But it was certainly 10 over 10 kilometers over any postage speed limits

I experienced in much of the Italian driving that I did when I was there in Italy

Yeah, what they what they do in France and Switzerland and Belgium is a lot of

Not, you know scanners, so they'll scan the light right this yep

They scan it's just like an easy pass

They just scan every every license plate and then remeasure, you know, the the time it takes you to go the next 10 miles or so

Oh, yeah, technically there in Europe because you know, we all discussed that possibility on something like the mass pike and exits

It could be very it's easy to implement from a technical standpoint and

Again, if you want to enforce speed limits, it is the only way to do it

Now do I like it? Of course not

But but that's a whole different thing

I think everybody should drive the speed limit and and and then make exceptions for me, but that's you know

Probably not gonna happen. Let's just do a few more appropriate things for the country driving because

Mostly 36

Things are what you know if you tried to remember all of them you probably get nowhere fast if you utilized everything

They

That they talk about snow tires

Take your snow tires off at the end of snow season because snow tires eat up

Gasoline because of the courses of the trends of the depth of the trends the deeper the trends

The more fuel you're likely to use because deep tread tires cause again more drag along with open windows

Sunroofs. Oh ski racks

You know roof racks will you should take the roof racks off if you're really concerned about saving as much possible gas as you can driving

They create drag as well and you've got the cross racks which probably create more drag

than the

the ski carriers, I do not know but

They also what a I guess I'm mostly done with this particular topic so we'll move on

a

AAA kick

Came out with an article about how long to let how long the lithium item

Batteries last and they basically said unless you get a problem battery. They last for the life of the car

Jay you've mentioned this in Tesla

Information way back when the testers were out and you saw you said taxi drivers or people and

They were driving a hundred thousand or 200,000 miles

In a Tesla or an electric car never had to change their batteries most of the time

It was once a concern

Of mine about battery life of the electric batteries

I thought a Hyundai Sonata hybrid, which is I believe I'm still not a lithium battery that has a lifetime battery guarantee

It is now

What is it? It's a 2013. It's now 12 years old

135,000 miles and I still apparently have a lifetime guarantee on it

But I've never had a battery failure and I've known people with Priuses that have gone a long way

Without a battery failure as well

battery

Replacement is an expensive proposition if you'd have a battery pack that is

Gone beyond its warranty and does fail after the warranty

I think most of them have been like eight years or a hundred thousand miles

Which is quite a long term and many people aren't keeping those particular cars

For that duration so

Electrics so speaking of electric cars you make me think

When I got here a couple weeks about ten days ago

My usual taxi driver was drives on Mercedes and was telling me that he had gone to the Brussels auto show and

Seen the BYDs and said without without a hesitation

In his next car would be a BYD

Okay, sorry I'm getting old no no, it's all right. It's uh, you know

The electric industry in our in our country in the US is sort of in shambles right now

year two I mean have

laid off

Building all electric cars in many cases forward with a jeff 150 pickup. I believe Chevrolet is cut back

Fuel there all electric vehicles

But you know if this

Fuel price increase that's going on right now were to hold as you mentioned in one of your

Emails to me that I got it might be a time you said there was electric vehicle leases are extraordinarily

economical and cheap

Yes, well, I can't remember which one that was

I've seen some ads for some electric vehicles

That seem extraordinarily cheap, you know leases on them at least I'm not sure about

Prices, but the leases on them have been you know

Under $400 for 36 months a month for 36 six months leased and maybe some cases under $300 a month

As we come to a close on all this discussion about how to save

Fuel and you're driving

We will drive less

Drive yes drive last that may be the final advice

Car keys with J. DeMarco and Robin Lee car keys with Robin Leach and J. DeMarco is produced at the facilities of

WHDD

91.9 FM Robin Hood radio comm Sharon Connecticut

Car Keys with Robin Leech and Jay de Marcken – March 9, 2026

About this episode

miles per gallon

fuel filter

fuel delivery timing

fuel sediment

AAA towing membership levels

dealership service

Triple A

Shell

insurance policy

extended warranty

premium gas

turbulence

convertible

aerodynamic drag

cruise control

trip computer

manual transmission

speed limit

no tolerance

Autobahn

radar speed enforcement

snow tires

lithium battery

Hyundai Sonata

battery pack

battery warranty

BYD

electric vehicle lease

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