The Jeep Wrangler is an SUV made for driving off-road, like on dirt trails or rough terrain. People like it because it’s built to handle tough conditions. It’s also common enough that key and access topics often come up with it.
Turn signals are the blinking lights that show other drivers which way you’re going to turn or change lanes. Using them early helps everyone react safely.
Some cars automatically turn off the turn signal after you finish turning. But they don’t always cancel perfectly, so if you change your mind or don’t make the turn, you may need to turn it off yourself.
Bluetooth is a wireless way for your phone to connect to your car. The host is saying that even if your car has Bluetooth, people may still be holding or checking their phone.
This is the electric version of the Porsche Macan SUV. The hosts bring it up to talk about how fast some cars—especially newer ones—can drop in price after they’re bought.
Depreciation just means the car gets cheaper as time passes. The hosts are talking about how fast that price drop can happen and how it changes when you should sell or return the car.
Depreciation means the car gets worth less as time goes on. The host is using depreciation as a way to judge whether buying a car used could be a smart deal.
Alfa Romeo Giulia is Alfa Romeo’s compact sports sedan, built with a focus on handling and driver feel. The host mentions Giulia alongside the Stelvio to make the case that Alfa Romeo models can be “great deals” used because they don’t hold value as well as some mainstream brands.
Toyota is mentioned as a brand people often associate with reliability. The host’s point is that Toyota cars may keep their resale price longer, which affects whether they’re a good deal new or used.
Honda is mentioned as a brand that’s often seen as dependable. The host argues that because Hondas usually keep their value, they may not be as cheap to buy new or used as other brands.
Retaining value means the car doesn’t lose its resale price as quickly. The host is saying some brands keep their value better, so they may not be as good a bargain when you buy them new.
The used car market is where people buy cars that have already been owned and driven. The idea here is to buy a car that’s not brand-new, but still relatively recent, to get a better price.
Cadillac is a luxury car brand. Here, they’re talking about a Cadillac electric car lease deal and whether the monthly price seems surprisingly low compared to what the car usually costs.
A lease is like renting a car for a fixed time. You usually pay a monthly amount, drive up to an allowed mileage, and then give the car back instead of keeping it.
“Hold their value” means the car doesn’t lose as much money when you sell it later. The host is comparing which types of cars keep resale prices better.
The Mercedes EQS is a luxury electric car. The host is saying it’s normally expensive, but you can sometimes find it for less money after it’s been on the lease/used market.
Geo was a car brand that GM used to sell cheaper, smaller cars. The hosts are talking about it as a brand from the past, not something you’d typically buy new today.
The Ford Pinto was a small Ford car. The reason people still talk about it is that it had a big reputation for safety problems, and it’s brought up here as an example of what Ford did when competition got tough.
Re-badging is when a company sells a car that’s already built, but puts its own brand name on it. The hosts are saying GM did this to get competitive cars to market faster.
The Geo Metro was a small, inexpensive car GM sold under the Geo name. The point here is that GM used it to compete with Japanese cars by offering something cheaper and better than some of its older models.
The Geo Prizm was GM’s version of a small Toyota sedan. The hosts are pointing out that it was basically built with the Toyota Corolla in a shared factory, which is why it could offer better value quickly.
The Geo Prism is a small, basic sedan that was made to be an affordable everyday car. It’s the kind of vehicle people used for commuting rather than special performance. The podcast mentions it as a “small sedan” example.
The Toyota Corolla is a long-running compact car line known for being dependable and widely sold. Here it matters because the Geo Prizm was made alongside the Corolla in a Toyota–GM co-owned factory, illustrating how GM leveraged Toyota’s manufacturing and platform.
Tesla is the company that later took over that factory and started making its early cars there. The hosts say the plant was changed a lot to fit Tesla’s needs.
Saturn was a GM car brand with its own identity. The discussion here is about how GM tried different brand approaches when Japanese cars were taking market share.
Term
plastic car
Vehicle to body wise
The host is talking about Saturn using plastic parts instead of all-metal bodywork. The idea was to make the car lighter and resist rust better than typical metal-body designs.
The Cadillac Cimarron is a compact car from the early 1980s that carried the Cadillac name. The podcast points out that it was based on a smaller car and was rebranded as a Cadillac. It’s an example of how a car’s badge can change what people think they’re buying.
Rebadging is when a company sells a car that’s basically the same as another one, but with a different brand name on it. The speaker thinks this strategy usually doesn’t solve the underlying problems for long.
An extended warranty is extra coverage you buy after the original warranty runs out. If something breaks, the warranty may pay part of the repair bill, depending on the contract.
Concept
extended warranty payout vs. car value
A big thing to watch is whether the warranty will actually pay the full repair bill. If the car isn’t worth much anymore, the warranty company might only pay up to a limit or not cover everything.
An engine replacement is a major repair where the entire engine is removed and substituted with a replacement unit. Because it’s expensive, it’s one of the first things people assume a warranty will cover—so it’s also where warranty limits and exclusions matter most.
A strut is part of the suspension that helps keep the car stable and controls how it rides over bumps. It’s often cheaper than big repairs like engine or transmission work.
Term
$300 a month
They’re describing a warranty that costs money each month. Whether it’s worth it depends on how long you pay for it and whether the warranty actually covers repairs you end up needing.
A “lifetime warranty” is supposed to cover repairs for as long as the car is in service (or as long as you own it). Even then, it may not cover everything, so you still have to check the fine print.
Prepaid maintenance means you buy future service ahead of time, like oil changes. It can save money, but only if the upfront price is cheaper than paying later for the same work.
Labor rates are the hourly charges a shop or dealership bills for technician time. When labor rates increase, the cost of maintenance and repairs rises even if parts prices stay the same.
Material rates are the prices for the parts and supplies used during service. If those costs go up, the “deal” on prepaid maintenance can change.
LIVE
He is Robin Leach. He is Jada Markin. This is Car Keys.
We are in the middle of
late spring, I guess in our
Show area and a lot of things are going on mostly frustrating things having to do with filling our cars and vehicles trucks
Whatever with fuel at the prices that keep going up not coming down
The things to notice in the driving world that I have noticed are that some people are actually driving more slowly
I think I'm noting that pickup drivers seem to be some of them at any rate are driving more slowly
Probably because pickups
Maybe Jeep Wranglers and Brock goes and the like
In my opinion get such miserable general
Gas mileage no matter what the price of gas is that they are realizing that when you now pay
Almost $50 or more to put 10 gallons of gas in your vehicle
It's a pretty expensive charge if you do a lot of driving on a monthly basis
Jay you might or may not
Feel the same way about driving you do so much driving between and long distances
Are you finding it harder to make efficient time?
In getting from A to B because you're stuck behind people going more slowly or not
I'm always stuck behind people
But I honestly have not noticed a difference in in traffic
Behavior any slowdowns, but but I don't know maybe you're right. It could be I
Did I do notice a difference at the pump I had to put some premium gas yesterday in the car and it was 599
So, you know, we talk about this
price of gas going into the well into the four dollars now and and that's one thing
but if you're driving a diesel vehicle like mine or or a premium gas powered vehicle, which a lot of you know a lot of
Vehicles around here around anywhere a lot of premium brand vehicles run only on on premium gas and
There's a whole extra dollar right there, which
Which shocks me even more the difference between, you know
Regular gas and premium gas so now you're talking six dollars a gallon for a lot of these people and
Granted if you're driving a premium vehicle, maybe the six dollars a gallon doesn't really
Change your life, but it's still that's probably true
but but it's still a lot of money and and
You know $50 in the gas tank doesn't put you a lot of gas
But I do see I mean and you know, there's there's official statistics for that
And we don't need to elaborate too much
But the price of diesel has kind of tapered off
It seems are anyway relative to the price of gas and certainly relative to the price of premium
It's not as crazy as it once was although. It's still in the high fives 589 or things like that
So yeah, but I don't see any difference in driving behavior. That's me personally I
Would say on the interstate or let's say the multi-lane highways. I would agree with you
I think it's just sort of maybe on some of the two-lane roads
You and I both make long-distance trips down route 22 and I'm the 684 and
Wherever else you go in different directions on those trips
And once you get on the the three lane two lane three lane roadways going in both each direction
You can pick a lane in which you can make your usual time distance
speed
trip at the same same relative
Time time distance and well arrival time that you've been using all along, but it's on these back roads
And maybe they just everybody's going slow on the back roads, but I there's some back roads
You and I both use getting to the
faster roads and
I've noted that when I get behind pickups these days that in the 40 to 45 mile an hour road range
They're actually going that that rate instead of maybe 50 or 55 which I noticed that
They more people seem to use to do before the gas kept to where it is and diesel of course
enough we won't we don't need to talk much more for that for our listeners, but
The way I've been measuring
my vehicle
efficiency factor is in the trip that I go regularly between
Sharon and New Canaan, Connecticut, which is 63 miles door-to-door and
You know, I set my trip computers on to showing the mileage and the other miles per gallon that you get and
I am fighting to keep my ability to get those 63 miles done in roughly two gallons of gas
Which requires you to be getting 30 miles per gallon a little bit more
Average between point A and point B when you start it off
That's how I'm driving as a result of it
Yes, I'm not going 75 to 80 on 684 which I used to do sometimes
I'm going 72 and
I can see my instant mileage per gallon rating
Achieving 30 to 34 miles a gallon on two of my vehicles or 30 to 40 miles a gallon on two of the vehicles that I use
between these trips
If you look at it, you know what a Jeep Wrangler gets or a Bronco or that kind of or a pickup truck
You're probably using at least one gallon more
maybe two in some cases for that same distance and
At probably four dollars and fifty cents a gallon or 440 Yeah, or a lot lot more if you're yeah
So that's how I've been measuring efficiency efficient driving situations
Moving on
I'm also noting in various
Situations in my opinion the fewer people use it. I mean this problem that we've been ranting about on released
I have I'll go avoid here. We're going to rant about avoid and not using your turn signals
What if the cars coming at you or coming before you are going ahead of you before they make a sharp turn to the left or right?
It seems to be an increasing disease
Enough on that you want to comment you can't
But I wish drivers would be
Attended to what they to their signaling when they're going to turn off the main byway that they're going on so that
They don't cause a potential action
Issue occurring if somebody were not to notice that they were gonna make you know
Signals is not only an obligation, but it's also a form of courtesy behind the wheel
Yeah, and and
You just find that a lot of people are just oblivious to what's going on around them
I tend to use my signals like if I'm making a turn off a main road
And I know I'm gonna be making a left-hand turn and I might be holding up traffic
I put my left-hand signal way in advance giving people the opportunity
To back off and slow down and not come to a stop behind me
As opposed to putting my signal on at the last minute
So again
Signaling is
Yeah, I guess you could just say the courtesy in the driver's driving world seemed to be decreasing in terms of doing little things like that
But that maybe a few years back we noticed was we're occurring more frequently and more appropriately
I definitely agree with you about turning the signal on
Well before you're going to intentionally make the turn
The all okay, so you ought to turn it off if you don't make the turn because they don't cancel
Well, yeah, and then and then you have the cars with the self-canceling signals and then they all behave a little differently
Sometimes you you you try to turn off a signal that's going to turn off itself
And now you have the signal going on the other way and then you try to
And then it goes right and left and right and it we've all done that and we feel kind of a little stupid doing so but
I guess you just have to figure out how how the signal work on your car
I don't know whether we can blame it on people on their phones at the same time
I I I tend to think that people are using their phones quite frequently while they're driving and they have to hold their phone in one hand
If they don't have bluetooth in their cars and the older cars don't the newer cars do
But you still see people I see people when I pull up beside them on a stop light on a multi-lane thing
They're their eyes are looking down at something that is in their hand
So if you even if they have bluetooth, maybe they're holding their phone
And if you have a phone in your hand and one hand on a steering wheel
It's hard for you to turn the signal light on turn the to move the signal stock
To use it properly. I guess we can move on
Well, I'm just turning it over to you the new cars you get to drive more new cars than I
Will ever do on a on a weekly or monthly basis. So
I tend I tend to drive this, you know, some of the same cars
Time and time over and there's cars. I like and there are cars. I like more and cars. I like less. I hate saying this
I mean recently I drove another I I still think the
Electric Porsche Macan is a fantastic SUV. I know it's a 100000 dollar vehicle
so of course I went online I went to on car gurus and tried to see if we started to see any used
Electric Macan's and there are very few but there are a few but they're still only two years old and
You know, there's still and you know, this 100000 dollar car is now 70000 dollar car for a two-year-old car and
it and it gets us to the bigger picture of depreciation of cars and
How fast how quickly a car depreciates and when should you turn it in or should you turn it in and what can you do to keep the
Values of cars up and so I I was reading a few articles on on that subject as well
and you know, my rule of thumb is that a car will depreciate by
You know 50% over five years and if you if a car depreciates more than that
then maybe it's a great car to buy as a used car and and you know, I've talked with you a lot about that off the air
about how I think
Alphas
Stelvios and Julia's are probably a great deal if you like that type of car because after all the
Asking around I've done about the reliability of these cars. They turn out to be quite reliable
yet they sell in in in very few numbers and
I think there's a stigma about the alpha brand
That makes it that as used cars. They just don't sell very well
So I'm looking at one of those for instance on the other hand side of the spectrum. You have
Brands like Toyota that that
because they are
Honda because they are extremely reliable tend to keep their value above that
You know 50% after five years or 70%
Retaining value after three years
And they're not such a great buy as new cars
in fact, you know for years and know people who've leased Hondas and Toyotas and
Turn them in and at the end of the lease and and have money down for for their next car and keep leasing cars
by trading in
their cars at the end of the lease deal
So
Yeah, where was I going with this? Yeah, the depreciation of cars and
You know back to the question. Should you buy a new car? Should you lease a car? Should you buy a used car?
I'm definitely in in the camp of people who are looking for great buys
In the used car market
freshly used but but still used
And that's how I bought my last cars
But that's my little take on depreciation well, you know, I've been watching a lot of car ads for our listeners benefit
I saw something that made me really take a second look at whether I should go lease a Cadillac electric
There was a Cadillac electric lease on a sports show
I think I saw over this last weekend before the show was done and it had a
Had a lease for one of the Cadillac brands at like
$600 a month for a vehicle that I think is probably up in the $60,000 range
I don't remember what the model was what I don't know is what the money down had to be before you started
Maybe it's $2,500 down and I couldn't believe that the Cadillac could be leased for that
inexpensive
level figure I
Don't want anybody to go fact-check me on this but
Leases have been the one way that manufacturers or and dealers have been able to move
These higher-priced vehicles or the higher prices of vehicles which we have said on the show of now
Escalated from the mid 30s to the mid 40s to close to $50,000 I believe for the average sale of
New cars and they keep going up
But the depreciation doesn't change necessarily in your in your earlier comments on depreciation of certain brands
It's they do last longer. There's no reason to buy new
I don't think in many lines of vehicles if you can get a recently off lease
And those leases are usually three-year leases with mileage in in the
Between 30 and 40,000 miles put on the cars by their users
Which are nothing in terms of aging of vehicles these days
As you have said and I agree with because I think new vehicles properly maintained
And that means proper you know regular oil changes make sure the brakes are in good condition
Are maintained throughout their lease vehicle they can go for another 100000 miles
maybe easily
Above those 30 to 40,000 miles that may be on the car that you are purchasing and
What you certainly do buy them at a more favorable
Cost value of the vehicle at that point relationship
Then I think you do buying a brand new one out off the dealer lot and driving it off a lot
Never to see that value retained by its vehicle again
Well, some cars do but very few. Well, I want to talk about for I was sort of I talked about in the affordable car index
As opposed to some of the exotics which which do hold their value as well as you have pointed out several times
Portability is all relative, but anyway, yes
I still think that you know, and we we talked about this previously, you know, if you want an electric car there are
2023
Lease cars getting off lease now, and there's a bunch of good buys
You know in the electric car market on the low on the affordable more affordable side of the
The equation you can get a Chevy Bolt for 15 to $20,000
You can also get a top of the line Mercedes EQS, which is a 12110000 dollar car
You can find them for 95000 dollars. So there's everything and everything in between
But moving on from that, yeah, I you know a couple weeks ago
We I wanted to start talking about different brands and the ones I thought may make it and others may not but
Robin you certainly remember this if your memory still serves you
Geo remember Geo back in the day
So I read a little bit about the Geo brand. So Geo was was
Came came about it's a it was a GM brand that came about I'm gonna say in the 70s
Maybe I'm not exactly sure when the first Geos came out
but basically the big three at the time we're facing stiff competition from the Japanese brands Toyota Honda and
They were just getting beaten into the ground with product that were superior in quality and more affordable and
Ford and GM's responses with the Pintos and the Vegas
Were were just just left a bad impression of what the quality of these vehicles were and
GM at the time just said it. Well, let's just buy something and re-badge it and
Sure look sure enough. They made deals with Suzuki and Toyota and we started seeing trackers and Geo metros and
and
Prisms prisms. Yeah
and the prism was a small sedan
Made alongside the Toyota Corolla in a factory that was co-owned by Toyota and GM and
Anyway, and and the brand the Geo brand served GM for a few years and then they killed the brand
and
And it seems like in this case
It was part of a short to medium term strategy and not a brand that was out there to
Take over any other any of their their other brands
But anyway, it came it was here and now it's gone and in the meantime, I believe if I am correct
That factory was then sold to Tesla and that's where Tesla started making their first cars in that factory
That was obviously modified quite a bit
So that's a little Geo story. Did you ever own a Geo?
No, I did not but when you were discussing the Geo brand. I was thinking of the Saturn brand that
GM brought out
Was it way it wasn't even it wasn't a
Essentially a plastic car
Vehicle to body wise. Yeah, but
And and you talk about short terms
Longevity and some of these
Lines of vehicles that the American manufacturers bring out hoping to counter the trends coming in from the imports
It's it just it keeps bringing back my comment that the American manufacturers seem to have a short-term
duration of tolerance for
success and sales of some of these brands that they bring forth and
They think they've got a good thing going and then it doesn't sell in what they deem to be
sufficient numbers to
To keep the production lines going and so they die and then then you know
10 or 15 years later you start seeing some of these vehicles on the road again. I don't know where they've been hiding
But I have I have not seen any Saturn. So I can't say that Saturn is an example
but
There could be some geo still running around fall, I know
They're probably are I'm sure there are I'm trying to think of the last time I saw one but
To comment on on on Saturn. I
Believe the Saturn brand came out at about the same time, but now my memory is
You're right. I think you think about
But but the idea with Saturn was two-fold one an original product, you know with that
plastic
No rust body and also a sales model that was aimed at no no haggling and and they wanted to
GM wanted to introduce the no haggling, you know one price same price for everybody, right and
Walk in a dealership, whatever the price was that's what you paid and that's what you walked out
You know paying
It didn't work out
Yeah, well Salam Salam Salam
Dealer networks dealer networks are very powerful quote-a-quote
Institutions and they were not gonna let this happen and the model just sank and you know for a brief moment back then
I thought oh boy, this is genius
But yeah, no, it didn't work out. So no more geos no more Saturn's
You know this rebranding
other products both Ford and GM did that I'm thinking of the
Yeah, you know the Mercur's
That Ford came out with which work
That were rebranded
Cadillac earlier in the 80s came out with the Cimarron, which was an opal that they rebranded as a Cadillac
What a disaster that was so
Yeah, American manufacturers have not been too successful in in rebadging
Product that they've either bought off the shelf or actually had in
Where we're selling overseas and through some of their subsidiaries
Um, but Jack or is part of that too, you know and Ford on Jaguar
They thought they had purchased a vehicle that was gonna be very successful or birth purchased a company
that was gonna be very successful in the US and
I don't think they I think they ended up letting go of Jaguar in less than five years after they purchased it
Yeah
That that whole concept of the Ford premiere group, I plead guilty to thinking it was genius at the time
You know Ford was acquiring a bunch of brands including luxury brands
and and
Yes
the
GM and own sob they killed sob in the in the
In the depression of the in the crisis of 2008
But the smaller Jaguar the one that was made to look like yours like an XJ and that was part of the
Probably a bad marketing decision on Jaguar's part the smaller one. What is it called?
I don't even remember. I think it was a Ford Mondale platform
Absolutely, yep one of the v6 engine and and it was like a junior
XJ series, which I think was a very good-looking vehicle and I own a
2004 XJ
As I've said previously on the show and it still looks as great today as I bought it and purchased it in
2004-2005 off lease from a company, you know from a Jaguar dealer, but the little one just never caught my
Favor in terms of being a practical
A
Successful line of vehicles because you just can't just miniaturize a line and think that the public's going to go out and buy
That same looking car in a junior size
however, however, not however the
The station wagon version of that car was pretty cool. Yes, it was
However, however again, how well it didn't sell and we know what the fate of
Wagons is in this in this country so much for rebadging and
Having sometimes mediocre products sometimes not too bad product, but still
Rebadging is a quick fix that seldom works long term. I agree seldom works long term now
Let me just go back and cover something in our final few minutes here
When you're buying a pre-owned car, I I have never I never have been necessarily a
Fan of extended warranties, but I put extended warranties on my car Vanna Jeep
a Jeep I bought new which at these are all Cherkees that I bought new for my wife back in
2020 and
a
Jeep that I had in 2014 and the one thing I've discovered about and there's a lot of marketing going on
on as TV and on radio about trying to sell extended warranties to people buying used cars one of them says up to
200,000 miles a warning to all people who want to listen to this part about
extended warranties I have discovered that if the cost of a
Breakdown of a car that has extended warranty exceeds the value of the car at the time that it happens
And I don't know any car with 200,000 miles would be worth more than $1,000 used
They do not pay for an engine replacement
Full cost of a repair that is more than the car itself is worth at the time
You want to turn in and and get the money, you know gets your repair done thinking you bought a repair that?
You'll never have to pay full price for an engine or a full, you know
Or a transmission or something that is extensive a much bigger repair item than a
Cost of a strut in the front suspension
So it's very the warning is if you're gonna
Take on and look at the look at into these extended warranty programs
And they are not quite a dime a dozen, but there are probably a half a dozen different plans out there
And this is outside of the manufacturers ability to offer you an extended warranty. This is not a manufacturer
It seems to have the same caveat about it
If the repair becomes more
Expensive than the value of the car the time you seek a
Repair through your extended warranty watch out because you may find that they will not foot the full cost of that repair
If the car itself is not worth the same amount or more than the cost of the repair will be yeah, and and that's
These repair warranties are going up. I mean you can buy them by the month
You can be paying $300 a month, which would be $3,600 a year and you might buy it for 30 months
I did the math on one of them and I
I
I'm glad I bought the extended war is I did on the vehicles because I've had minor repairs all of which have been covered
but I have yet I I was almost tested on a transmission problem for my
2014 Jeep and that's when I discovered that the lifetime warranty, which was a Chrysler then Chrysler Jeep warranty
Not an independent said the same thing that the independent warranties did that oh the transmission is going to cost you
10,000 year vehicles worth 2500 dollars
Which meant that they would have
Given me a check for 2500 dollars
And I would have had to pay the balance if I had needed a new transmission which I fortunately have found I do not need
And those warranties not to be confused with prepaid maintenance from
dealerships
Which can or cannot be
Worth while you got to do the math. I'm not sure they are worthwhile, but
The ones I have used have been worthwhile
I buy three year programs three oil changes
Retire rotation of the like and it has come out to be roughly
One third less than if I were waiting for the do it on the per need
Cost factor as you take the car in because the labor rates are going up and the material rates are going up oils now higher per
Court the hourly rate to do it. So I do think the prepaid
Maintenance programs should be looked into very carefully by anybody
Wanting to try to save money
Over a three or four or five-year period and with that we will end this week's show of car keys with J. DeMarkin and Robin Leach
So until next time thanks for listening car keys with Robin Leach and J. DeMarkin is produced at the facilities of
WHDD 91.9 FM Robin Hood radio comm Sharon Connecticut
About this episode
Fuel prices keep climbing, and the hosts share real numbers—like “Almost $50 or more to put 10 gallons of gas in your vehicle”—plus how that changes what they buy and how they drive. They compare regular vs premium and diesel, then pivot to practical driving habits: using turn signals early, especially with “self-canceling signals” that behave differently. From there, the conversation turns to depreciation, EV lease-return deals, and whether extended warranties and “lifetime warranty” coverage are worth it.
