Infiniti QX review and questions from our listener family

WATD presents John Paul, The Car Doctor, All Things Automotive.

Have questions?

Call or text 781-837-4900.

Now, here's John Paul, The Car Doctor.

And good Sunday morning everyone and welcome to another edition of the Car Doctor program on 959WATD,

where we're supposed to be talking to Wes Boling from Nokia and Tires today.

But he hasn't called in yet, so I don't know where he is.

But anyway, we'll just kind of get on with the program without it.

You know, there's been a fair amount of interesting things in the news lately,

including there is a big aftermarket parts company called First Brand.

And they make all kinds of parts and they recently filed for bankruptcy.

And I don't really know what this means other than most of the headlines say things like,

it's worse than you know.

And this comes from Carbuzz.

And it says the First Brand bankruptcy announcement surprised pretty much everyone,

not directly in the loop about the conglomerate's financial standing.

Most people didn't even know First Brand existed until the news came out.

And this came out, I think I read it last Saturday or Sunday.

But they're a big aftermarket company.

They apparently owe billions of dollars, which is never a good thing.

And the situation really wasn't known until I guess this sometime in September

when they kind of stopped paying their bills.

And that can be kind of an issue.

So, you know, it is one of those things that they own, they own a lot of stuff.

They, which is going to make, I guess one of the stories here is they owe $10 billion.

And they're trying to do bankruptcy protection restructuring and all of that sort of thing.

But they own, and co-wiper blades, auto light, what else do we call it?

Cardone, which makes all kinds of products, Fram, Michelin.

I don't know, I don't think they own Michelin tires.

I think they own Michelin, like, wiper blades and stuff.

So, Reese Trailer hitches, Trico, which is another wiper blade manufacturer.

Rebestos, brake part manufacturer.

Carlson, so basically what they own is a bunch of wiper blade companies

and brake manufacturers, as well as Fram oil filters.

So, if, you know, what does that mean?

Well, they also own Phillips Light.

So, pretty much if you walk through an auto zone store or something like that,

their parts are all over the place.

And if for some reason they don't get bought up or that something happens,

the aftermarket is going to be a tough place to buy parts.

And the idea that I'm not sure if they're just distributors of these parts.

You know, again, I can't imagine that Michelin has gone bankrupt, because I can't imagine.

But, you know, it's certainly one of those things that could happen.

So, that's been one of the odd things in the news today

and something to kind of think about.

And then, of course, recalls are always popular in the news.

I think Ford just, again, recalled the Ford F-150.

And that has caused, I think, 150,000 of them or something like that.

But, let's see, 103,000 F-150s for faulty rear axle hubs.

That was one of the recalls.

Some expedition navigators were recalled.

So, another 115,000 for some steering column issues.

So, if you own an F-Series truck, it sounds like either the rear wheels are going to fall off

or the front end is going to fall off.

Is it still a good truck yet? It's still a good truck, absolutely.

And recalls happen.

And recalls happen a lot over, it can be just one minor thing

that can cause the recall to happen because they're like,

well, this one issue that happened is pretty serious.

So, we better recall 100,000 of these vehicles that can be all part of it.

So, it really makes sense if you haven't done it,

go to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

I think they're still open.

And download their app.

And you can put in your specific vehicle into the app.

So, if your vehicle has an open recall or not.

So, it actually goes by a vehicle identification number

and you end up knowing exactly what's going on

so you can get your car fixed properly.

And remember, recalls are always free.

So, when you go get a recall, they are going to be fixed for free.

So, certainly something to think about when it comes to recalls.

This was an interesting week because

on Thursday the New England Motor Press got together

and we don't get together as a group as often as we used to.

When I first joined the New England Motor Press,

it wasn't 40 years ago when it started,

but it was in the late to high 30s.

We are very first meeting

and if you've been around forever and ever and ever,

John White from the Boston Globe

and John Lawler who was doing some work

for Car Talk at the time but also owns a company

that distributes press cars,

decided on a ride home from somewhere

that we should have a local press association

similar to what New York does with the International Motor Press.

So, the New England Motor Press was started.

I went to the very first meeting

at the Museum of Transportation Brookline.

We decided that was going to be our home.

That didn't work out that well

because it just didn't work out that well.

Not for any real reason but it had to be catered.

If we had meetings, I mean it was a great place to have a meeting

and certainly if you've been to the large industry and auto museum,

there's always a rotating display of cars

but it's a fantastic looking building

that all it did was house horses at one point in this life

and the mansion was up on the hill that burnt down.

But the carriage house remained

and it's a beautiful space

and the town of Brookline maintains the property, I think.

But that's where we were going to meet

and then it didn't work out.

So, we ended up meeting at the Boston Globe

when the Boston Globe was on Morrissey Boulevard

and we met there for years and years and years

and John White was the president for a few years

and over time different people were president.

I think I was president off and on four times,

vice president a couple of times,

treasurer at least once.

So, I've been involved with this group

but when COVID happened and car companies stopped coming places,

the idea of having a monthly meeting

just sort of went away

and we didn't meet the same way.

But we still meet periodically

together for things like the awards lunch

and dinner that we have

and the rag top ramble

and at the holiday time

we have a big Christmas party, holiday party

where a lot of the car company executives show up

but now we're doing it in Middleborough

at the headquarters of Auto Motion,

the delivery company

because it's a cheaper and it's easier to deal with.

The issue with the Boston Globe before they moved was

and it was a good issue

we used a caterer that ran the cafeteria at the Globe

so we'd say oh we got 40 people coming to dinner

they'd whip up something

and we'd be able to eat

and it was pretty inexpensive at the time

the cost of coming to a meeting was maybe 20 or 25 dollars

and that covered the cost of the meal

and we had a little bit of money left to put back into

the Daniel Motor Press budget to pay for other stuff

so it actually worked out

then we moved to Auto Motion in Middleborough

and typically we get the meals catered by Dave Steiner

right down the street, nice place

and that's where the meetings happen

but they only happen a few times a year now

this week we got together with the folks from Kia

and talked about the new Kia Sportage

and the Kia representative

is now George Kennedy

who's been on this program before

George Kennedy was a freelance auto writer

who decided he needed to get a job

where I guess he got a paycheck every week

or every two weeks or however he gets paid

but now he's the rep for Kia

and he handles a variety of things

kind of up and down the

I don't even want to say up and down the east coast

I think he's probably the guy who handles

a lot of the Kia Public Relations events

things like that

so the new Kia Sportage

they've changed it a little bit

it's still basically the same size

although it looks slightly bigger

but I think that might just be design

but now it's equipped as a gasoline car

a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid

and every model except the base model

comes in all-wheel drive

and there's not a lot of difference in cost

between say the hybrid and the gasoline model

so Craig Fitzgerald asked a question

with only a couple thousand difference in cost

between the hybrid and the gas model

is there any consideration of just making everything

hybrids or plug-in hybrids

and right now the answer is no

because everybody they want to appeal to everybody

I asked a very similar question

there's only about $1,800 difference between

all-wheel drive and the front-wheel drive base model

so why not make them all all-wheel drive

and the difference between the base model

and the next model up

it comes with some other features that are not there

so probably the true cost of adding all-wheel drive

to the car is probably not much

so why not make them all all-wheel drive

and again the same answer was

we want to try to appeal to everybody

the all-wheel drive version

it starts at like $32

the front-wheel drive base model

and they hate it when you use that term

starts at like $29,500

or just about $30,000 I guess

so you know there are people that go

you know I'm only prepared to spend $30,000

that's all I'm going to spend

versus somebody who says

you know for a couple thousand dollars more

I'd rather have all-wheel drive

I like the vehicle a lot

I went for a ride in it

it may be my next vehicle

the Kia Sportager

or maybe the Hyundai Stable Mate of the vehicle

and the difference between the two

are pretty close

the Hyundai Tucson to me seems a little bit more

sophisticated inside maybe

where the Kia looks like it's trying to be

a little bit more of a

I don't know a little bit

a little bit more rugged I guess

whether it really is or not

I don't think so

although they consider themselves absolutely competitors

they also share the same engine

transmissions

suspension pieces

it's the interior stuff that's a little bit different

some of the technology is different

I remember years back

Kia was going to go with everything

sort of cell phone based

where Hyundai was going to go more

with embedded technology

using like a Wi-Fi signal

so there was a little bit of difference there

I'm not sure that's even there

so but it was good to have

group come out

it was good to see some folks

I hadn't seen for a while

so it looks like a good vehicle

and I think they're orderable now

if they're not already at dealerships

so if you're looking for a compact SUV

go take a look at the Sportage

I think you'll be pretty impressed with the 2026 model

which is not the car that drove me back

from the New England motor press meeting

and that was the Infiniti QX80

and that's always been the brand's flagship big vehicle

in fact it's a massive vehicle

I live on a very small road

with two small driveways

and this thing's on the front yard

because it's too hard to get into

either driveway easily

so it's a big vehicle

and this was the Autograph Edition

which is really the top of the line one

I mean Infiniti's taken this formula

really kind of turned it up a notch

it created an interior that's very luxurious

you kind of forget you're behind the wheel

of a kind of body on frame SUV

and it's not just the trim level

I think they're really trying to compete with Lexus

and even more so a Cadillac Escalade

if you look at this you would probably

look at an Escalade

you might look at a Lincoln Navigator

I met some friends for dinner last night

and they're like

what are you driving I showed them

and I told them it was ridiculously expensive too

and he goes I came out and looked at it

and he goes look at the interior

look at the wood which is real wood

we'll get to that

in fact it's Japanese ash

which I wouldn't know

but it is

you open the door and it immediately impresses

you can see how Infiniti's gone

all in with this

the leather feels premium

it's got this kind of woven pattern

just makes it look really nice

and it's two tone leather interior

which kind of again adds to that kind of

luxurious look and feel

I guess the proper term would be quilted seats

and the detailed stitching

and piping and French seams

and all that sort of stuff

again genuine Japanese ash

interior is just

it's like a

private jet inside

it's really nice

what Infiniti did with this model though

is they did away with the 5.6 liter V8 engine

and it's been replaced by a

3.5 liter twin turbo V6

the old engine

the V8 engine made 400 horsepower

and 313 foot-pounds of torque

the V6 actually makes 450 horsepower

so it's a smaller engine

it's lighter

but because it's turbocharged it makes

50 more horsepower than the old one

the ride quality is good

it has electronic hydraulic suspension

that smooths out the bumps pretty well

the cabin is extremely quiet

which is nice

the driving experience

is

pretty relaxed feeling

I was on some kind of twisty roads

and

it felt

twisty I guess

so I think Infiniti really decided

to

prioritize

comfort over kind of engagement

of the vehicle

dual screen infotainment system

it's as wide as the dash

but it is in two screens not one

I don't know why

but it's very impressive looking

the graphics and interface

maybe aren't quite as intuitive

as you hope but overall pretty good

it's priced this one

because of the autograph edition and all of that

it's priced over

six figures so it's pretty

expensive vehicle

and

luxurious

plenty of

power

it's a five star retreat on wheels

if you're looking for

good value

well

is there good value in over $100,000

I guess there is

but if you're looking for comfort

and an opulent cabin

this is it

like I've said before with Nissan Infiniti

I worry more about the company

than the vehicles

but they claim they're going to

be putting a lot of money into

you know getting everything back

on track the way it should be

so I thought they would be

have merged with the new company by now

so you never know and I also just read

Stellantis

realizes they have some problems

they're going to invest $10 billion

to try to fix their problems so

car companies that don't seem to be

doing as good as they should

seem to have a lot of money to fix it

our phone number if you would like to join us

and I don't know what happened to

Wes Bowling but

if you would like to join us the phone number is

781-837-4900

like Tom and Pembroke is doing

Tom good morning

hey John how are you?

good how are you?

been a little while but you were talking about

wiper blades earlier

I just have a question if you go to

like ocean state they're $6

they go to whatever

O'Reilly they're $20 each

is there a difference?

well I go in between

I go to Walmart where they're like

$12

there is I mean

there can be

I

always have been a fan of

Trico wiper blades

I always thought they were good they did their job

and Trico and Anco were similar

they and they made

I

think they made Michelin wiper blades

I've tried them I thought they were

okay

I

really like Bosch wiper blades but

it physically hurts me to

spend $30 a blade

so

and I

usually change my wiper blades

it depends on the car

the car that I

have driven back and forth to Florida

usually

before the trip in either direction

I put a new set of wiper blades

on and sitting

and if you came to my house right now

sitting on a little end table

area is a set of Radex

wiper blades and they were

like $13 a piece

we when I went up to the

New England motor press meeting

I stopped to get two things

wiper blades at Walmart and

windshield washer fluid

and

the $12

Radex blades seem to

be okay and seem to do the job

I stay away from

some of the

the beam style blades

which work pretty good when they're smaller

but I tried

those on one of my cars

and

my wiper blades are weird there's the

wiper side is like 24 inches

and the pasture side is like 14

and the 14 inch

beam style blade worked okay

the long blade

flopped around too much

I didn't like the way it worked

for the winter time I do like the hybrid blades

so it looks like a regular wiper blade

with just a little plastic cover over it

that kind of hides the fingers

of the blade so they don't ice up

I hate the big rubber ones even though they work okay

they just look so ugly

I don't want to use them

but I kind of go with conventional

not super

expensive again the Bosch blades

they're good

they do a good job

but they are expensive

and I think even Radex and a couple of the other ones

have

they call them silicone blades

if you look at them you're like

I don't want this blade with this yellow covering over it

it's just a cover that covers the blade

while they're being shipped I guess

they don't look better I don't know if they really are

but I

I don't think

if you can find the right size blades

that are a brand name

at Jawblot

buy them

they have Michelin

and Bosch

I just didn't know if there were a different model

they probably

Jawblot bought out an auto parts store

somewhere and all of a sudden

they ended up with a bunch of wiper blades

what ever happened to the spoiler

they used to put on the wiper arm

I don't know if you remember

I do

it looked like

it looked like a cute idea

and even back

when all the wiper blades

were made out of metal and there was a couple of cars that had them

I don't know how good that

really worked

did it really

cause that

downward pressure

you know

maybe at 60 miles an hour

or a crosswind

maybe it did help hold the wiper arm down

but I don't think so

I think it was more somebody said

oh that's a really good idea

we're putting a spoiler

on the back of the Camaro

let's put a spoiler on the wiper blades

put a lot of strain on the wiper motor though

and that's what

it wasn't that many years ago

that some of the wiper company

came out with like dual blades

they followed like the

razor commercials

instead of one blade

let's put three in, let's put five in

and that's just too much weight

it's a dumb idea

get a

decent quality blade

and replace it once or twice a year

yeah that's true

alright

so you like the infinity

it's a beautiful vehicle

it's way too big for anything

I'd want to own

I mean you put down both

it's a third row seat that adults can sit in

it's

super luxurious

it has some like crazy

high end stereo

system in it and I'm tone deaf

doesn't really make that much difference to me

but it does sound really nice

this one's got a bunch of miles on it

it's still real solid

considering it's been driven by

300 people probably

it feels real good

it feels real solid going down the road

it's just way

way more vehicle than I'd ever want

on a daily basis

it's hard to park

in a tight parking lot

because it's big

even though I'm a big person

I'm not a big car person

I like my cars

sort of mid-size

I just find them more maneuverable

for me to get around

I will say

the vehicle I drove a couple weeks ago

that Ford F-150 Tremor

I drove that from here to Foxwoods for work

Foxwoods to Lincoln Road Island

back to Foxwoods then back to here

and being in a big vehicle

with big comfy seats was kind of nice

until I had to go

park it someplace

so I'm more

a mid-size car guy

is it basically the Nissan Armada?

it is

it's just got so much

more

luxury inside of it

with the

quilted leather interior

and the real wood stuff

I think they must have put

5,000 pounds in

I'm exaggerating obviously

but sound-deadening material into it

it's super quiet

they did a real nice job

and you can't

if you're somebody

and I just answered a question for somebody

who has a Honda Pilot

that's their third Honda Pilot

but they're looking for a vehicle

that has three rows of seats

and can carry adults

and they looked at the Jeep Wagoneer

and they said what else is out there

and I said really in full-size SUVs

Suburban, Escalade

Expedition, Navigator

QX80

or the Wagoneer

you know that's

there isn't a lot

once you get over a normal

3-row like a Honda Pilot

and then I said something that's kind of in between

the Toyota Grand Highlander

is they stretch that out

and all the room is for the third row

but third rows

are great except you still got to crawl back there

you still got to go over the second row

to get to the third row

but once you're back there they're reasonably comfortable now

but

QX80, beautiful car

just not anything I would want to own

and probably cost more

than the house I'm sitting in right now

when I first bought this

Have you driven the Honda Prologue?

No I haven't

I haven't

I've talked to

It's actually a Chevy Blazer

the car itself

That was a turn off there

I don't know why they got in bed with them

Well

if

the way I

understand it is

Honda

is not

when you look at the

cars like Honda

they haven't really jumped into the whole

electric car thing

so I think they've partnered with

GM in this to try to say

hey look

we need to have an electric car

we can partner with you

we can make ours

they probably said we can make ours better than yours

and

off it goes

Yeah

Honda's still

Honda's got some tricks up their sleeve

but they're not fully

sold on all electric yet

Yeah neither is Toyota

Exactly

and the

all electric people will tell you that's stupid

why are you going to have a complicated gasoline engine

in a car with a complicated

electric motor just have

one and that sort of makes sense

but you know still

just recently

down the street from me here

they put in an electric charging station

with I think it can maybe accommodate

four cars but up until

then I had to drive

25 miles to get fast

electric charging so I drive 25 miles

plug

in and charge for half an hour to get

about 90% full

on an electric car then drive 25 miles

to come back home so even if

I charge it up to 200 miles

I was still coming back with 150

you know because

I use it up I use part of it up to get there

you know so

so until we start to see more electric

vehicle charging and batteries

get I mean I've gotten so much better

but still to get even better still

and to bring the cost down

I mean none of these electric cars

I don't think

have been profitable although

it's kind of interesting I just read a story this morning

from John Gorham

who writes for

torque news

that deal with the rebates

that have gone away the federal rebates that have gone away

the car companies have adjusted their prices

so it looks like

there was some profit being made

in spite of the

$7,500 rebate now they've taken

the rebate away or the tax

incentive away and

they've adjusted the price so they look close

to what they were after the tax incentive

which either makes you believe they're losing

money on every one and they're sitting

on the lots and they got to get rid of them

or

they were making more money than they admitted so

you know and well whatever

happened I remember you mentioned in AAA

was going to have like a portable charging

truck or something well

we bought we bought six generators

that went in the back

F350 like

mechanics body style trucks

and

they could

they were big generators

and they could provide a charge but now what

we're doing we have now

40

Ford lightning pickup trucks

so they're all electric pickup trucks

and they do mostly battery and light service

so you know if you need a battery

if your car it's possible

an electric pickup is going to come out

and but if you need

if you have an electric car that's out of

electricity

we can plug into the back of

the electric pickup truck

plug a cable into the

240 volt outlet then plug it

into your electric car and charge it up

off the batteries in the pickup truck

they haven't been able to figure out

Ford hasn't been able to figure out high

speed charging from one big battery to

another but we can get

we can get 10 or 15 miles

20 minutes off the pickup

trucks which is about

what we did off the generators so the generators

are still around

the generator style trucks are still around

but now we're using the electric pickup

as a way to charge and honestly

we don't we've done very

few vehicles that are run out

of electricity most people

that have electric cars are pretty good at it because

they charge them up at night

at home so they're starting the day with

kind of a full charge so there hasn't

been that much problem and the other thing is

if we're

if you were say

you know out on the mass pike

driving out to I don't know

Tanglewood and you ran out

of electricity we're

actually going to tow you off the mass pike

because

we don't want to have one of our

trucks in you

sitting by the side of the road

for 20 minutes or half an

hour we want to get you

we want to get our people and you

off the road before you get

run into

that's true and I know the mass pike

also has their own

right yeah that was the mass pike

probably wasn't the best example because they would send

out somebody but in a lot of cases the mass pike

towers also

take triple A because of triple A

too but yeah but what they do is they do a

short just to get you off the pike to get

stuff moving because the pike is the pike

but

yeah we don't want to we don't want to take a chance

and have people not be in an unsafe

situation so

I think the biggest game changer would be

like low voltage charging like

1.10 normal

yeah I mean

that would be but it's just not quite

there yet

there was a company called spark charge

out of summerville that had this

massive battery that could be plugged in

to 110 volts and get

recharged and then what you would do

is you'd plug your electric car into it

and it could charge up your electric car in

like 30 minutes and then

what it sucked out of the big battery

that you would store at your house

or someplace you would

recharge that battery with 110 volts

so it kind of

it kind of started the same way and I think

and I thought

they were going to get the

they were going to get the contract

to set up all their systems at rest areas

in Massachusetts but looks like that kind of

thing so

okay Tom

alright thanks a lot

alright thanks Tom take care

our phone number again

7818374900

let's talk to another Tom

from Weymouth

Tom

good morning John

John you talk about wipers

I've driven about a thousand miles this year

and I'm on my third pair

I just can't find when that works right

I think maybe somebody stuck it back

in the box

so then I get another pair

and I buy them at Walmart

I'm trying different ones

and now this thing kind of snaps

words mount

flop and I'm like oh jeez

and I get rid of that

I'm buying the best one we have

not the most expensive but

is it a rain next one that's like impregnated

with something to coat the window

and then the rain next

yeah

in theory that's what they say

you know it's like

two different glass cleaners

I have say it's clean

and repel does it really

repel I guess a little bit

what I found though is

just use a rain axe on a windshield

sometimes if you put a little too much on it

makes the wipers chatter

so

I like to start

with a perfectly clean window

and I'll even use something like

um

glass stovetop cleaner

or

bony amy powder

to try to get the window as clean as you can

right and then

once you get it clean then you get a good start

but you know and the other thing is

sometimes the wiper arms aren't

perfectly perpendicular

to the windshield

so kind of twisting them a little bit

and you know getting them to work

you know so they're on a 90 degree angle

um

but yeah you want the blades to attach

with a good snap

to the wiper arms

kind of did but the plastic

they kind of snapped so I don't know that one

but this one here now so I tried that

one you mentioned the big curve on it

there's a lot of pressure on that

and they flap and they just

not cleaning this one in the sun

it's smearing the

cleaner and it's worse

I had to go and wipe it by hand

and I cleaned my windshield

you know start with

start with a real clean windshield

and then kind of go from there

yeah but they're not even getting that

I mean I know

they're all different problem on every one of them

but anyways

Honda

now I'm disappointed

in a lot of things than Honda but

all you can get is a black interior

I can't believe it

yes I went there

a few years ago I was thinking again

and they said only black

and when you go on their site and you look at the car

they only see only black interior

what's going on so I didn't buy one

I just stick on my old car

we need to take a break

we're running behind so

always good to hear from you Tom

yeah you too John thank you

John from Marshfield stay right there

we'll get with you in just a minute

here's my name is John Paul

this is a car doctor program

you're listening on 95 9 WATD

we'll be right back

my boyfriend is so romantic

he brought me to hull gut

at twilight

to watch the jets come in right

over his pickup

all the lights

the roar of the engines

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Hey there folks, it's Quinn Kelly

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Honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award

from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

He's John Paul, the car doctor on 959 WATD.

And welcome back to the car doctor program

on award-winning 959 WATD.

Glad to be here.

And let's talk to John and Marshfield.

John, good morning.

Good morning John.

I have a question about the Corvette C8.

Specifically, first of all, I love the car, it's fantastic.

And what's interesting is if I drive it

for three weeks in good weather

and I go into any other car,

it seems like a very detached experience.

I mean, it's very hard to describe it.

When you have an engine like a few inches behind you

and you have an axle two and a half feet

in front of your steering wheel

and you're that low.

I mean, it is an experience

unlike anything I've ever experienced

certainly with any other passenger car.

So that's the good thing.

The question I have is about

the dual-clutch transmission filter.

Is there an alternative reasonably possible

to getting a dealer done this?

I know it's a lot of work to get to it

but is there an alternative to going to a dealer?

Um, probably, I mean, it's...

You know, can you go somewhere

and change and have the fluid change?

I don't know that it's that complicated to do it.

It's...

It's an expensive job.

It's expensive?

The...

$200.

Yeah.

And because there's a bunch of fluid

but there's an internal and external filter

so that's about $500 combined.

It's about four or five-ish hours of labor.

So, you know, I think...

I think...

The internal filter, by the way, is like apparently forever

but the issue I have and I wanted to ask you about this too

in terms of the frequency of replacing it

the issue is the external filter.

You know, I had it replaced at 7,000.

Right.

And here's where it gets questionable.

They're like, you need to then replace it again

every three years or 45,000 miles.

And like in my case, I use the thing

4500 miles a year.

Is that a performance issue or is that...

If I wait 20,000 miles and four and a half years,

the thing's not gonna fall apart on me.

Is that gonna affect performance?

You know, I...

I think...

And this is just my guess.

And I remember being at the GM

drivetrain factory a few years ago

when they were actually developing

the engine and transmission for this.

And they had this transmission sitting on a fixture

that was, it looked like a ride from a carnival.

It was spinning upside down in sideways.

And I said, you know, how long,

what's the equivalent test time of this?

And they said, well, we wanna make sure

that the transmission is gonna go 175,000 miles.

And I asked them whether they serviced it

in between this test sequence.

And they said, no.

Which I thought was sort of odd.

And I'm like, well, I would think...

And the answer was, well, we think it'll last longer

if actually people take care of it.

But I think the thought behind it is

that people may drive this kind of hard.

And so even though you may only...

Yeah, right.

So even though you may only drive...

Exactly the point, John, I was going to ask you about

is my wife and I, we don't drive this hard.

I mean, once every four months, I'll launch it.

And that's it.

And that's like once in the summertime.

Other than that, it's like a cruiser for us

that we take down 139 and 3A.

So if we don't drive it hard, I just don't...

Do you see the need to replace that filter

every three years, 13,000 miles?

I would...

Other than they tell you you should,

to me it almost doesn't make sense.

It's one of those things.

It's like, why do you need to do it that often?

Just for that reason.

And you got me curious now.

So I'm looking to see what GM says about normal...

They don't really differentiate in how you drive.

The basic boilerplate from GM is,

they said replace it within the first 7,000,

which I did, right?

Right, right.

And then they're saying, okay, and after that,

the external filter needs to be replaced

every after three years or 45,000 miles,

whichever comes first.

And my theory is if I'm not driving it hard,

I'm gonna kind of lean more towards that 45,000 part

than the three years, right?

Would you agree with that?

Well, I'm looking at the maintenance table,

normal service maintenance table,

and they actually, in this table,

they just go strictly by mileage.

Right, right.

So they're not saying, they're just,

they're not using time.

Now, I wanna try to look at,

no, they don't even,

they don't even show it as,

let's see.

I would say this.

Let me bite my tongue here.

Let's see what it says.

Change of transmission fluid every 22.5

or when change of transmission fluid,

soon message displays.

Change of fluid and external canister filter

within a thousand miles.

Failure to change the fluid at required intervals

can lead to reduced transmission performance.

Transmission fluid must be changed

at least every three years.

And the fluid life must be reset.

If the system has ever reset accidentally,

the fluid must be changed at 72,000

or 45,000 miles since the last change.

And then it also says,

change the transmission external canister filter.

And this is at,

they're kind of considering this different

than what it says in a normal maintenance table.

So this is, yeah, so, yeah.

Yeah, I-

John, as you know with the Corvette owners,

I'm not like a typical Corvette owner like they are.

This is like a religion to them.

And if you don't follow the book

and do it like twice as well,

you're like not a good owner.

And like, I'm just not in that camp.

And so like I'm talking to people in communities

who are just like, almost religious about this.

And I just, you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, yeah.

No, and I will say sometimes,

and this is where it gets a little bit goofy,

it's sort of like some of these people have spent,

you know, $1,200 to change the transmission fluid.

They're proud of the fact they spent $1,200.

I know.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Like I said, when you're talking to these people

for advice, they make you sound like you're an abuser

if you exceed the strict guidelines by 500 miles.

But that's what I want to talk to you is like,

I know you're very objective about these things is,

number one, I want to find out, is it possible?

And the other thing that they're really strict about,

in fact, one very reputable guy

who does a lot of work in our cars,

and he said, look, I would not do

the DCT filter thing myself.

You really should go to a dealer.

And that's why I wanted to run this by you and say,

what do you think?

Because it's like 700 bucks of labor.

Yeah.

It's like $500 part and like 700,

which I think is kind of high.

Yeah, I mean, it's,

yeah, I mean, I've never done one,

so I have no idea.

But to me, it doesn't look that complicated,

but maybe it is.

But then again, every time I think it doesn't look complicated,

I see a C8 that fell off a lift.

You know, so.

Right, I think that you don't want to do that, yeah.

Yeah, so, you know, it has a pan,

it has a pan and a fill plug.

I don't know, but it doesn't seem that complicated.

Again, I've never.

But I told you I have to dismantle a whole lot of stuff

that gets hard.

There's a lot of stuff underneath it,

and once you get the pan off,

there's another plate that's gonna come off,

and so, but I don't see it.

I mean, you know, fluid doesn't,

this style of transmission,

whether it's in a Corvette,

any of the dual clutch transmission,

you know, they work a little bit harder, obviously.

And I don't know, is part of this because they want to say,

they want to show reliability is being really good.

They want to be like, hey, you're lucky,

you don't have to do it as often as the Ferrari guys do.

You know, the other thing is,

tell me if this is being cynical,

but the one issue that has been occasional,

but very damaging is they have had issues

with these transmissions blowing up.

And they're very specific saying,

if you don't follow this plan,

we can void your warranty.

Could it be that General Motors is trying to say,

hey, we have a way of getting away

with it replacing a $20,000 transmission

by using a loophole,

which is that you did not follow the required maintenance.

Could that be a cynical, is that too cynical?

No, not at all.

Yeah, no, no, I don't think so.

You know, I-

General Motors might have come up with that.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, they have more lawyers than engineers.

Because like my wife has a dual-clutch transmission,

Hyundai Kona, and like this isn't an issue,

like we don't even talk about it.

I think it's also performance.

So what you're saying is if you let it ride

a little bit more, it's not gonna ride like a Kona,

but it's not gonna ride maybe optimally?

No, I don't, you know, I don't-

I don't see it.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I guess, you know,

if, what year is yours?

Mine's a 21.

Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know,

it's pretty much fully out of warranty now, right?

Well, here's the other thing.

Why I'm really kind of rolled the dice a little bit,

it'll be out of warranty in terms of the power train

next July.

Yeah.

So the bumper to bumper were passed,

but you know, the thing you worry about

is the power train in this case.

You know-

I fear.

Would it make sense just before it goes out of warranty

to service it?

Probably.

Okay.

Probably, you know, that way if-

Yeah, that's true.

Three years from now, something bad happens,

and they go, well, you never came in,

you never had a service, and you go,

well, I had a service just before the warranty expired.

Yeah, but either way, it won't be under warranty.

Yeah, yeah, well, you know,

but you might be able to get,

say something bad really happened.

You might be able to get some goodwill assistance,

and say, hey, look, you know, something bad happened.

I tried to follow the maintenance the best I could.

It's a CA, and I live in New England,

I don't drive it every day, obviously.

You know, and maybe it does make sense to do it

just before the warranty runs up.

Good advice.

I never thought about that, that makes a lot of sense.

I just thought once the warranty deal ends,

you're like on your own completely,

but your point is, there could be a little bit

of a goodwill thing if I follow the rules,

and say, hey, it's two years later,

but you know, this thing blew up.

Yeah, if they don't have goodwill for a Corvette,

what are they gonna have goodwill for?

At good point.

Yeah, that's their showcase vehicle.

Yeah, absolutely.

No doubt.

But by the way, it's a great car.

I mean, it's...

No, I've driven a few of them, they're fantastic.

It took me a little while,

because I'm old, it took me a little while

to warm up to a mid-engine Corvette,

but once I drove it, I'm like,

this thing's fantastic.

I mean, it's just unbelievable.

I mean, the feeling you get with the engine

right behind you and the axle literally

in front of you and down low,

you just feel like you're one with the car in the road.

It's an unbelievable experience.

There you go.

All right.

I take you just sold three of them.

Hey, and thank you very much for your advice.

All right, take care, John.

All right, bye-bye.

We need to take another break.

We'll be right back.

My name's John Paul.

This is a car doctor program.

You'll listen to 959WATD.

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Hi there.

It's Paul Kabilian from Kabilian's Car Care

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Did I thought that I could control

This is Dan Cludier.

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We're from Birch Fair Records.

Tune in to Twilight Showcase Radio.

Hosted by Sandy Stride and Keith James.

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Twilight Showcase, tonight from 8 to 10.

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Make an appointment Sunday morning at 11

for John Paul, the car doctor.

On 959WATD.

Now, back to the car doctor.

And welcome back to the car doctor program.

We have about five minutes left.

Maybe we can get a quick call in if you want to call in.

It's 781-837-4900.

Somebody wrote in and said,

My gray 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee

has several stubborn bird droppings

that define my numerous efforts to remove them.

Is there a product out there you can recommend

to remove the cement like poo from the car?

The droppings are on the side.

Yeah, good luck.

On the side of the vehicle makes a little bit harder.

Normally what I would say is

get a microfiber cloth, soak it in warm, soapy water

and let it sit and soften up the bird poop.

Where it's on the side,

you're gonna have to kind of,

maybe a couple little buckets of warm water and soap

and swap over, put one microfiber cloth,

hold it on the side of the car

until it kind of dries out.

Another one, try that.

Bacon soda and water work pretty good too.

You could try that.

Vinegar and water I've heard.

Never tried that, that works good.

I remember talking to Barry McGuire from McGuire's Wax

years ago and he said mayonnaise.

I don't know why but he said get out there with mayonnaise.

Never tried that.

What I have tried, works products

that people make the weed whackers

and all that sort of stuff.

They make a handheld steamer that runs on a battery.

So you put a couple ounces of water in it

and hot steamy water comes out.

I've been able to clean some stuff off with that.

Different, whether it's mold or mildew,

hot steamy water can make some real difference.

If you have one of those steam genie things

or maybe even a floor steamer,

maybe you can hold it up against it

and see if it's the hot steamy water softens it.

Might work.

When all else fails, go to a cardio detail

or see what they have.

Some of them will use steamers as well

to clean gooey stains off of interior dashes,

stuff like that.

So maybe give that a try.

The other question that came in,

well, we were on the air actually.

I had my car parked for two weeks while I was on vacation

when I came back and drove it for the first time.

I'm hearing a thudding sound coming from the rear

when I applied the brakes.

I've not had the rear brakes replaced yet.

The front brakes were replaced at 90,000 miles.

What's your opinion of what is needed

and if the brakes need replacement?

What do I ask my mechanic?

Is it safe to drive short distances?

It's probably just accumulated rust.

Over the past two weeks,

we did have a couple of rainy days.

So maybe the brake rotors got enough rust on them

that they're making a little bit of noise.

You'd had the front brakes replaced at 90,000,

so you're a pretty easy breaker.

But chances are at 100,000 maybe

or whatever, how many miles are on this car.

Probably needs rear brakes anyway.

Here's what I'd want to do.

I'd want to drive it a short distance to your local garage.

See if you can take somebody for a ride

so they hear the same noise you hear

just to make sure that it really is brakes.

Then bring it in, remove the wheels, check the brakes,

see what things look like.

Chances are it's gonna need new brake pads

and new brake rotors.

Good idea to replace them together.

Brake rotors have gotten cheaper over time.

So go ahead and replace them and get it done

and get it taken care of.

So probably the best thing to do at this point.

So I don't know what happened with our guests

that we were supposed to have today.

I'm sure we'll hear from him soon.

He's a good guy and he usually never misses

any of these things, so I'm a little surprised at that.

So who knows.

Next, we actually have guests scheduled

for the next few weeks, so hopefully they're all

showing up when they're supposed to.

So we'll hope for that.

Well, that music means that it's time for Jesse

to take a break and it's also time for me

to call it the end of the day here.

So until next week, make sure you wear your seatbelt,

drive safely, be good to your car.

And if you do see an emergency vehicle

by the side of the road, slow down or move over.

It saves lives.

Talk to y'all next week.

Bye-bye.

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