Driving into the Future: Car Events, Jeep Gladiator Mojave, and Tesla's Reign

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In Wheel Time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central.

It's the In Wheel Time car talk show Coming up.

We hope to have Gary Rallo, the modified production racer, in the National Drag Racing League event going on up in Bowling Green, kentucky, later.

Look at the stories making automotive news headlines this week Howdy, along with Mike out of this World, mars King, conrad DeLong.

We always need more.

Jeff Zeekin, i'm Don Armstrong, glad that you could join us on this Saturday morning for our live program, always every Saturday, 8 to 11 live, and then, of course, throughout the week you'll get podcasts and special events and all that other stuff.

So if you'll not only just like us but follow us on Facebook and actually YouTube has actually gone a bit further now we've got podcasts on YouTube, which is pretty cool, i think, okay.

So what we're going to do right now is we're going to kind of jumble things up a minute and we're going to have Conrad do the events calendar.

Now, these are events, not cruise in.

So Thursday, june 22nd is the Rudy's barbecue meet at the Rudy's Country Store in Tombow.

That would be a cruise in.

I think, Tombow Parkway.

Yeah, but it's in the future, It's not this weekend.

It's a couple of weekends, but an event would be like a car show, and then the June 24th is a Lone Star Drift Round 3 at the Houston Police Academy.

Those are always fun.

And June 24th is the Cars and Coffee at 26600 Westheimer.

June 25th is Cars and Cocktails at Little Woodrow's in Tombow as well.

July 2nd is Coffee and Chrome Sunday up here at the Avalon Diner And then July 15th is the Texas Road to Revolution cruise.

They're going to start off with the Black Bear Diner in Humble and cruise through East Texas.

That'll be a fun little cruise, yeah.

Is it a one day cruise?

Yep Mountain back.

Where are they going to go to?

Up and down East Texas.

This is events.

Yeah, it's a great event Through the Piney Woods.

So I wonder how far you could go out from the Black Bear Diner to make it back before the sun goes down.

Oh gosh, you'd probably make it up to Lufkin.

Oh easily.

Long view.

Lufkin Long View probably.

How about?

Texarkana.

That'd probably be a pretty good haul.

But yeah, he probably could.

But I would say they're probably going to go up.

Well, if you're doing 150 miles an hour Up near Jasper and stuff, because there's some fun roads driving up that direction Jasper.

Yeah, up there in East Northeast Texas Okay.

East of Northeast, whatever.

Alright, northwest, we're going to get it too picky about it.

Mr Mars, are you too busy to do your car review?

No sir, not too busy at all, just doing a quick audio check here.

Alright.

Well, why don't we take a look at the 2024 or three, 23.

23.

Jeep Gladiator.

It's the Jeep Gladiator Mojave 4x4.

And I was really surprised to find that the Jeep Gladiator is now available in 10 different trim levels.

It's still part of the first gen that was introduced in 2019.

And the Mojave is about mid-trim level.

It's maybe three quarters up.

It is a mid-sized pickup.

It is the only mid-sized pickup that is a convertible, because you can take the doors and the top completely off of it And have yourself a nice little convertible.

We know you like taking these shoppers.

I'm telling you four-door CooCab.

It's got a five-foot bed on it.

This year they did introduce a new trim level, the Freedom Edition.

It's based on the Sport trim level, but we're going to stick with the Mojave.

It's kind of done after a high-speed desert runner, because even the suspension's kind of got the front.

It's got an inch higher lift to give you a little more, i guess.

Jump over the dunes, oh, over those dunes, yeah, yeah.

So when you look at it, you're going to see the familiar seventh slot grille.

It's got LED lighting, which is the headlights, fog lights, tail lights.

It's got the removable doors on top, like I mentioned.

It's got performance shocks, skid plates under the transmission, the fuel tank all the things you would expect for a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Interesting, it runs on some 17-inch wheels with some 33-inch tires.

It is off-road.

That's all part of being off-road.

It's a little different than the street.

Complete with Dana Axles in the front and rear.

That's 14 gears, which has an impact on your fuel economy.

You think Yes.

Now on the inside we had cloth seats, which is really good because this is an off-road vehicle, absolutely off-road.

It's got sport bolsters on it, though Front seats are heated, and it's got Apple and Android all the technology.

It's got a 7.4-inch

driver display that's got you know for your speedometer, your TAC and a lot of other things that you can figure out and display on there.

8.4-inch

touch monitor in the middle That's where you're going to find your U-connect, your radio, your air conditioning system, and it does note that it does have AC vents in the rear.

For the rear passengers I got storage behind the rear seat.

We had the Alpine Premium Audio System so that when you're going down the road at highway speeds with the top down and no doors, you got plenty of volume there to overcome the wind noise.

Kind of like you had a helicopter with the doors off.

Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because the air conditioner doesn't work.

So up under the hood we had the 3.6-liter

V6.

It's the same engine you're going to find a lot of the vehicles from Jeep 285 horsepower, 260 pound-feet of torque, and that is the only engine that's available in the Mojave trim level.

No other choices.

8-speed automatic.

Epa says you should be looking for about 17 miles to Gallant in the city on the Highway 22, Combine 19.

I drove 207.8

miles and got 15.1

.

Oh my, a lot of mine was in town, so I got that 14.

That's what I got, too, is it about the same.

Yeah, yeah, i mean it's got a lot of bottom into it, but it cost.

And let me just say this about that, and I said that in my review this is an off-road, purpose-built vehicle.

They're going to be compromises made that aren't going to really meet up with an everyday mid-size pickup truck Because it is designed for off-road areas.

Right and it's a very specific off-road.

I was talking to a couple of guys that you know down here we don't have deserts per se the closest thing we got to the beach And with the sand.

But for a rock crawler it will do that, but it's got some specific things like the front being an inch, the lift being an inch, taller stuff for the sand and for that environment.

I like to refer to it as very comparable to the way that really a true pickup guy would do actually tell the factory this is what he wants on his pickup truck The gearing, the transmission, the wheels, the tire, all of the stuff that you can change on your vehicle.

It's the same thing that holds true with Jeep, except it's even more so.

And it may have been something Jeep did some research on to find out what kind of modifications people were doing to their personal Gladiators.

And this is it.

Well, they do that with all their Wranglers and their other Jeep off-road vehicles, but with the Gladiator, one of the things that they did it looks kind of.

it looks very much like a Wrangler.

It shares a lot of things with the Wranglers, such that whenever that vehicle launched in 2019, there was 200 aftermarket or 200 accessories you could get from Jeep that were already available for the Wrangler that would transfer and fit on this thing.

So it was very much built in line with the other products that they have.

So did you find lots?

of the Easter eggs.

I found quite a few of them, quite a few of them, and my granddaughters even helped me find some of them.

They said what are you looking for?

And I explained it to them.

They thought it was cool.

Well, it is cool.

Yeah, now pricing Base model Gladiator will start at $38,990.

That's not cheap.

It's not cheap when you compare it to a Chevy Colorado that starts at $29,290.

But the ZR2, the off-road version of that vehicle starts at $46,890, which when you look at the base trim price of the Gladiator Mojave at $50,595.

And the as-tested price, the MSRP, was a flat $67,000.

Wow.

The other one that I found that I thought would be comparable would be the Toyota Tacoma, very popular off-road vehicle, the TRD.

The base model on it's $28,250.

But the TRD starts at $40,776.

So when you get into that mid-sized, serious off-road type vehicle, they're all priced comparable.

The Gladiator may be a little bit higher but it's got a reputation.

And one thing I did fail to mention Jeep off-road comes with trail-rated badging on it.

Well, the Mojave does not have trail-rated badging, it has desert, yeah, a desert-rating desert badge instead of trail-rated because of that Mojave concept, the desert runner thing on it, And after having a week and driving it around town, I can see where that size truck would be.

Yeah but even the Tacoma in Colorado, my personal opinion are not comparable to the off-road ability of the Jeep, i agree, but in having something to compare it to, i think that it is probably its best competitor in my mind would be the Toyota Tacoma TRD.

Yeah, i don't ask me specifically why, but I have seen Toyota represented more of a head-to-head kind of thing.

you know the off-roadness of it.

Yes, yeah, they put a lot of the cameras, a lot of the features that you can get in the Jeep off-road vehicles.

You can now get into the Tacoma.

That's probably, i agree that's the one that's done the most to be competitive in that category.

Yeah, the ZRT the R2 looks good, but they're chasing Jeep Jeep's leading the pack.

Well, yes and no, i think that the Jeep Gladiator really stands alone.

You can compare them, but not really, because the Jeep is focused on off-road.

And I'll tell you what.

If you have a remote cabin in the mountains of Colorado somewhere, that would be the ideal thing.

Get up the mountain with the four-wheel drive, you put a plow on the front of it and have all your supplies in the back.

Bingo, because, remember, it is a four-door.

And I personally think the back seat, the rear seat for the passengers there's a little more room.

To me, part of it's because of the way that seats are structured.

They're a little more upright, whereas some of the other mid-sized you're more laid out.

Your feet extend out more in front of you, even in the rear seat.

Plus, you also got that great storage underneath the back seat And you can fold the back seats up.

It's a Swiss army knife, That's a good way to put it.

I want to remind you that the In-Wheel Time car talk show is available 24-7.

Through the iHeart radio app, just look for In-Wheel Time car talk.

We also video stream on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and InWheelTimecom.

Don't forget YouTube.

Don't forget to follow us on.

Facebook, because Facebook apparently has changed the algorithm or something And we don't want just likes.

We love them, but we'd rather have you follow us.

Al Gore never had any rhythm.

Al Gore.

Is he still alive?

No, he was dead when he was born.

He lived forever on the internet, no doubt.

He invented the internet, didn't he?

That's what he said.

You can believe him.

Yo absolutely.

He's on the internet.

Yeah.

And you got to think 20 years ago he said that both polar ice caps would be completely melted by now.

Wrong again, al Gore.

What does he do now?

He gets rich complaining about the environment.

Oh, is he an environmentalist?

No, he's a Waco environmentalist.

I mean like so far off the Well, actually, if we can get him on the air.

Yeah, it'd fit right in Wacocom.

Well, that would come up as Wacocom, and I don't think there's much comparison.

We did go through Waco on our trip up to Grandbury, yep, southern Waco.

So all the Bucky signs headed north on 35.

I saw that there is a new Bucky competitor up in the Midwest.

Not that Bucky's is in the Midwest, but it's a Bucky-like kind of answer to Bucky's Walters or something like that, and it's very similar to Bucky's Nothing compares to Bucky's.

No.

Where do they have Walter Nuggets?

Walter Nuggets.

I don't know.

I don't remember that, that's even the name, but they're coming to the Midwest, near you.

I thought the best sign we saw on the way up was it was you know, bucky's is like 93 miles and said Pottion, pottion.

That's great.

Yeah, creatively, i wish that they would buy some time on our show.

We could whoop that up, we could.

What?

What do you sm?

What is it?

that's a smirk on your face?

Well, no, it.

just That's something we need to work on.

You've reached out many times.

We have.

And Bucky.

So if you know somebody at Bucky's that'll help us.

info at inwheeltimecom.

Now you're begging Focus up, there's a cashier named Flo.

That was there.

We know Flo.

Flo, flo And her husband Eb, eb and Flo Never mind.

Jeff did you share your medication?

No, but I do like it, ha ha ha, ha ha.

Okay, well, clearly, our National Drag Racing League.

Nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia, drag Racing League.

Whatever They leave on the clutch, yeah.

And they've left And they've left this broadcast.

Yeah, you know, that's one of the things about those guys.

At that age They forget what.

Forget what they went into the kitchen for Yeah.

What am I going in the house?

for Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, there was.

Yeah, he's at a track of all we can say Yeah Well, we think he is.

We don't know where he is.

I will tell you that, coming up the next hour, tim Eisenman is the CEO of Torkata Tier 4 tires.

Jeff, what's a Tier 4 tire?

Ah, there's more one more than a Tier 3.

They're so expensive they make you cry, You don't even know.

I've never even heard a Tier 1, 2, 3, 4 tires.

Well, you got passenger, you've got trailer, you've got.

Expensive and cheap.

Whole wide variety We're going to find out Corvette tires were expensive, weren't they Don?

Yeah, they were.

I think that was a $1,500 hit for four of them, which actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, you know.

Just saying.

Just think you could have spent that $1,500 on your lovely girlfriend.

Instead he's spending on his car.

No, actually she's got a new set of tires.

so there, there you go.

On the Jaguar to get new tires on it.

Would you like to take a headset and sit down and talk to us?

Come on.

You're more than welcome to The lovely.

Leslie has walked in to say goodbye because she's leaving and going to start her day.

Congratulations on the new job.

Very welcome, yep.

Thank you.

See you later alligator I got some headlines to tell you about.

This is really no surprise, but it kind of is.

Who would have thunk it?

Tesla Incorporated regained its rapid sales momentum in the US during the first four months of 2023 after deep price cuts, growing its registrations by 52% compared with the same period of last year.

Experian Data showed It's truly amazing, you know, because I thought, oh, with all this competition, they're going to kind of back off a bit.

You know?

no, tesla does not break out US sales as part of its global sales report, but registrations serve as a proxy.

And, speaking of EVs, around a quarter A quarter of new car shoppers in the US are now considering purchasing an electric vehicle, a share, however, that has only grown slightly over the past year as motorists worry about charging infrastructure.

All that work buzz does.

That's the finding of the JD Power 2023 US electric vehicle consideration study.

Who names these things?

Release Thursday Research firm found that 26% of shoppers say they are very likely to consider an EV, up from 24% a year ago.

Engages interest in fully electric vehicles rather than electrified autos such as plug-in and conventional hybrids.

Yeah, they're going to consider it, but here, in a very few short years, they're going to be forced.

Well, that's the only choice they have.

I have news about infrastructure and places to plug in, because you know everybody's gone.

You know it's been kind of like remember the Betamax and the VHS that wore Guess what.

I went Betamax, where did Betamax go?

Right down the toilet.

Good luck even trying to find such a thing.

And then it was Blu-ray.

Well, and the Blu-ray DVDs, video discs, yeah, so that kind of bit the dust.

They got a show in Vegas.

The Blu-ray group.

That's it, the Blue Man group.

Tesla stands to earn Beaten on plumbing pipes.

Tesla stands to earn as much as $3 billion by 2030 thanks to deals with Ford and GM for their electric vehicles to use its charging network.

Oh, good for Elon.

If you know Elon, help us hook a man up.

We'd love to have him on the show Amen.

The deals which now make Tesla's charging model the standard in the US among the largest automakers in the US will pressure competitors to ditch the primary competing standard known as CCS.

Details on revenue were not released by the companies, but Piper Sandler estimates that Tesla could add upwards of $3 billion in charging revenue from non-Tesla owners alone by 2020.

$3 billion by 2030 and $5.4

billion by 2032.

Cajing.

You're kidding.

Well, you know the thing.

You see, though, around are more and more Tesla charging stations being built.

You know I've talked about the one in At.

Buckeys.

At Buckeys I talked about the one in Beaumont, Now there's one at the vintage right there near the HEB.

They put in 12 charging stations.

Right now all 12 work because I go by there often enough.

Are they Teslas or?

the Combo No, it's.

Tesla, it's that red and white square thing, this whole food chain to see Tesla.

Or are they just generic, the generic, the CCS?

But that goes to show what most people with any common sense already know You give it to the government, you'll never get it done.

So here you've got this guy in the private sector that's going out building this stuff and basically he's going to create it to the point that it's going to become the standard, instead of trying to compromise it And it's going to be profitable for him, so the government's going to take all this profit I've got all this stuff.

So here I'm going to share it with y'all for a price, and now he'll become the standard Smart guy.

Absolutely brilliant.

Yes, that's why we need to get Elon on the show, like the Joe Rogan show.

Oh, God Not.

I don't think you'll do Well.

No, I know this is Texas, I would.

I would know about that.

So, Stellantis, recalling more than 331,000 2022 and 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee and 21 to 23 Jeep Grand Cherokee L SUVs.

They may have incorrectly installed rear coil springs that could detach from the vehicle while it's being driven, increasing the risk of a crash.

Uh-oh, you think.

Yep, oops, what happened, martha?

The whole back into the car, is all sagged down.

The vehicle is picked up.

It's picked up.

Fine time to The 21 and 22 Jeep.

Grand Cherokees have been the subject of eight previous recalls.

The issue with the vehicles is due to an assembly error, not a part defect.

Stellantis is not aware of any accidents or injuries caused by the issue.

But they sure do look funny going down the road, yep, but no spring in the right rear or left rear or whatever.

Boy, you think about running into that spring as you're driving behind that big, go right through the window and kill somebody because it's heavy, all right, and it's metal, and it's metal, and it's all heavy metal, heavy metal.

There are some other recalls, including engine failure may cause a thermal event and the Ford Escape Maverick in coarse air for 2020 through 2023 models.

Chrysler carbon ceramic brake rotor by Fracture on the Alfa Romeo Giulia and the Stelvio 2017 through 2020.

Both of them they sold here in the United States And it does not say anything about the toenail.

What's that new vehicle coming out with?

The tonal.

Hey, what kind of It's the Italian toenail?

It's the.

Italian toenail It tastes a little garlicky.

It's got a black nail with the 442 tattoo.

I like that.

I know It kind of reminds me of I'm going to talk to.

my Next time I get a pedicure I'm going to have her draw 442 on my toenails, do you?

No, you need to have it painted black and then put the 442 in yellow.

But my toenails are already blacked on.

Just make sure you put a leaf of basil on your socks.

Oh geez, I don't really want to know that.

I got that vision in my head.

How about you, Jeff?

We did not need to know that, jeff, put some basil in your sock.

If you're doing that Basil Yeah, it's Italian Put basil in your sauces and stuff.

Put them in your sock, okay.

Probably make them smell better.

Yeah, anything, we've lost control.

Oh my gosh.

And it's all Don's fault.

Airbag may not deploy properly in the Toyota Corolla Cross 2022 to 2023.

Just once Bentley Bentayga 22 to 23 models second row seats are incorrectly installed Backwards.

Backwards Incorrect wheels installed on the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport for 2023.

What is that?

a $5 million car, yeah it's probably a staggered fit to put the wrong ones on the wrong side.

That's it.

By the way, did you see Craig Bierman's Ferrari, Holy Toledo?

What did he get?

I don't even know what model.

It is Some bad to the bones.

Yeah, we saw it last week.

It's beautiful black with a black interior.

Oh my gosh You want to hear the ESP one.

No, it's not the ESP one.

It's, i don't know.

Is it a 2017?

or 18 model, it's got 900 miles on it or something, but it is stunningly gorgeous.

And it sounds funny.

That's the only way to buy a Ferrari And you know those Ferraris always sound funny.

Flat plane crankshaft.

Yeah, we talked about that a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah, we did, and I think that the red line on it is like 8,000, 9,000.

RPM Sounds like a sewing machine.

A ball joint may separate from the lower control control arm on the Subaru Ascent for 2023.

Only once, not Subaru.

Only once.

That's right, as you take out the entire front end of the car And the guy on the left side.

That as well.

The, the potholes in Houston have nothing to do with it.

No, no But boy, i'll tell you what hit one of those with the ball joint separated.

I can see that thing all wadded up underneath the car as you roll over it.

Rear passenger doors may not latch properly on the Land Rover Discovery 2017 to 2020.

Imagine that exterior vehicle lighting failure on the Land Rover Range Rover 22 to 23.

Quality built Software error may cause loss of drive power.

Mercedes Benz models AMG, eq, e, eqs, eqs, 450, eqs, 580, and the list goes on and on 22 to 23 models.

And they can probably update that through the.

Internet, i would imagine, or over the air, they call it.

Yeah, yeah.

Because I know Tesla does a lot of their updates over the air.

What are you going to talk today about?

Car clinic?

Um uh blocks, Engine blocks.

Engine blocks And the various styles and different ways of putting them together, as well as uh um, some that were extremely successful and others that weren't.

She's the engine.

Block, fest the fashionista.

Well, you know, we've.

we've talked about piston rings, pistons connecting rods, crankshafts.

I figured we'll just work our way through the engine.

Absolutely Yeah.

Uh, exhaust manifolds and intake manifolds, that's.

I think that those, i think that those are.

Those are fascinating things as well.

So I've asked Conrad to kind of expand and, uh, get more technical in the car clinic, because I need to know these things, and this guy here is Mr Brilliance when it comes to knowing those kinds of things.

So why not pick that brain a little bit as opposed to picking your nose?

I can do that too.

Yeah, i can do that.

Thank you, uh did want to.

Uh.

Thank you for joining us today on the in wheel time car talk show.

We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to start with our number two right after this.

Stay with us.

Everyone at the tailpipes and tacos cruise in at the loopy tortilla, tex max and Katie.

Thank you for participating in the best cruise in around and look forward to seeing you again.

You'll hear about the next cruise in date right here on in wheel time.

Next time you're in the West Houston energy corridor area, be sure and stop in at the original loopy tortilla Tex max at I 10 and highway six or the Katie location on the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard When passing through Beaumont or college station.

Stop in and have loopies, award winning beef fajitas and frozen margaritas.

There's always a celebration at loopy tortilla.

Loopy tortilla founder Stan Hold and his wife Sheila are winning racers on the NHRA drag racing circuit and have a collection of hot rods and classics that everyone appreciates.

Look for them at the next tailpipes and tacos cruising.

The day will be announced soon and will once again be held at the loopy tortilla Tex max on 99 in Kingsland Boulevard, just south of I 10 and Katie.

We'll give you all the details right here on the in real time car talk show and online Donations.

Benefit God's garage.

We'll see you then.

You own a car you love.

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The award-winning in-wheel time car talk show is available on the most popular podcast channels out there in 30-minute episodes.

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That's it for this podcast episode of the InWheelTime car show.

I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning 8 to 11 am, central on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website.

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Driving into the Future: Car Events, Jeep Gladiator Mojave, and Tesla's Reign

About this episode

Jeep Gladiator

Jeep Wrangler

Toyota Tacoma

Subaru R2

Chevrolet Corvette

Jeep Grand

Ford Maverick

Ford Escape

Alfa Romeo Giulia

Alfa Romeo Stelvio

Toyota Corolla Cross

Bentley Bentayga

Subaru Ascent

Land Rover Discovery

Land Rover Range Rover

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