Is EPA Deregulation going to put money in your pocket?

You're listening to the get out and drive podcast fueled by AMD with your host, John

custom car nerd Meyer and Jason old car guy car will be bringing you gear heads, everything

you've never wanted to know about cars and why they should be on the road and not in

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If you guys didn't notice, we did change up our music a little bit, very similar to

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I'll walk the blockbuster guys, welcome to the get out and drive podcast fueled by AMD.

My name is Jason.

This is John and speaking of regulations, we're going to try and talk a little bit about

some of the EPA regulations that have recently been turned back as part of the current administration

in the US.

Before we jump into that, John, I do want to talk a little bit about the fact that these

regulations are EPA regulations and they were put in place.

Some will argue and we're not going to get political on this episode, but some will argue

that they were put in place for the environment, obviously environmental protection agency,

to help keep people safe, to help keep people healthy, to combat things like climate change

and global warming and all those trigger words that tend to be a thing that we talk about

these days.

Do you remember back, you and I are only a few years different in age, but do you remember

back like in the late 80s, early 90s, acid rain was like, oh, I, I remember, nice fear.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

That was, that was amazing.

It put them little circles on your car.

Yeah.

Like today we have what's called hard water spots.

You go to the car wash and if you don't get it dried, it leaves these little spots all

the place.

Well, back in the 90s, 80s and 90s, Mother Nature was doing that for us because the water in

the sky was full of crap and pollution.

And when it rained, it left spots and I truly believe that's why Dodge had so many bad paint

clear coat problems in the 90s.

It was acid rain.

I know it was.

No, no, it was not.

I 100% know the answer, but that's okay.

I know you do.

I just, I just think it's not acid rain.

Somebody was on acid.

Yeah, I know.

But in, in back then it was acid rain in the 2000s.

It was what hole in the ozone or something.

I think they had a hole in the ozone from all them girls with the big hair hairspray

from the, you know, 80s, giant 80s, small hair.

That did it.

That's what did it.

Yeah.

And then into the 2010s, it was, you know, the earth's temperature was increasing.

Therefore, the glaciers were melting, causing more flooding and worse weather.

And they, they called it global warming now into the late teens and early 2020s.

Climate change seems to be the buzzword that seems to affect everybody.

And we are not here.

Maybe we are.

We are not here specifically to take sides one way or the other on whether any of this

stuff is true, whether what, how it relates to you and me, John, and everybody that listens

to us in the car industry and more specifically the collector car industry and where these

rules come into play.

So how do you think that some of these EPA rules have affected you in your daily life?

They took diesel boys off the air.

Thanks.

I mean, I was happily watching along, cutting catalytic converters off and eliminating,

you know, the blue goo all over, I just, I was happily minding my own business and then

no more.

Thanks.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I always had, I never owned a diesel vehicle, first of all, and I always had a

problem with the death fluid, if people don't know what that is, a diesel exhaust fluid

comes in a box, comes in a bag, comes in a plastic container, and you pour this stuff

in your container and it sprays particulate after combustion, keep the particles from

coming out and black stack in the world, you know.

But I don't think the carbon, no pun intended, I don't think the carbon footprint of all

that plastic crap is, is, is even helped at all with the fact that, you know, what they

say death does, I mean, am I wrong?

So what you're saying is death is meant to, well, the whole theory behind it is to lower

tailpipe emissions.

Correct.

But what you're saying is, is that the carbon footprint involved in lowering tailpipe emissions

from death is less than the carbon footprint in the freaking containers and boxes and

plastics that comes in when you buy it.

Oh God, yeah.

Because you, you take that stuff and the cardboard and then the bag and then the plastic and

the cap and everything, and what do you do when you've got, you're done with that?

But John, that's, that, that doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because all you do, hear me out, all you do is you just, you just put

it in the garbage can and then it gets recycled somewhere.

It's all the, the magic, the magic place called the throwaway.

Yep.

Is that the same place that batteries and windmill blades go?

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I think it's fine.

We don't worry about that.

Okay.

It gets recycled.

Cool.

I'm fine with that then.

Yep.

Let the global, let the whole entire globe warm up.

Yep.

Cool.

So next week, folks, thanks for joining us.

We'll be driving EVs from here on out.

We taught, no, boy, that's not what this is about.

This is, we're basically trying to talk about the deregulations that the current US administration

has deregulated the EPA rules and it affects a few things.

So a couple of things we're going to talk about is auto stop start.

We're also going to talk about EV mandates.

We're also going to talk about the cost associated potentially with the reduction in, in, in

these deregulations.

We're also going to talk about the reliability of vehicles, again, in theory, by getting

rid of some of this crap, as John and I would like to call it.

Oh, hey guys.

This is Jason here with AMD and you're watching the Get Out and Drive podcast.

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So I want to jump right in because it's a hot button topic is auto stop start.

It's been around for several years now.

If you guys don't know what it is because you don't care and you drive vehicles that

are old enough that you don't have it, it was a feature put in so that when you pull

up to a stop light, a stop sign or your vehicle stops, as long as your foot's on the brake,

the engine shuts down, but everything still maintains your air conditioner, your radio,

all that stuff.

And as soon as you lift your foot off the brake, the starter gets a little bit of juice

from an auxiliary battery, starts your engine back up, and you can go.

Yes, there's a delay.

Yes, it's annoying.

Most people shut it off, but it does not default in the off position.

Shut your car key.

The next time you go to turn it on, turn it on, it's automatically defaulted on.

You know the whole stupid reason behind all that?

Yes.

It is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life.

OK.

You have a master's.

Oh, go ahead and explain it.

Go ahead, John.

I'll let you explain it.

The theory you want to explain it so people can hear it or listen and understand it or

how I see it.

Dude, I want you to I want you to tell why it was brought on and the whole premise

behind it, and then we can talk about the bullshittery afterwards.

All right.

So your car runs for 100 percent of the time, right?

If you turn it off for like, I don't know, 20 percent or when you're stopped,

your car's not running.

Zero miles per gallon.

So it's not emitting harmful pollutants while you're sitting in stoplight.

So that's better for the environment, right?

Pull up to a stoplight, turn your car off, turn your car back on and let it go.

Seems great in theory, right?

Just turn it off.

It wears down your starter.

It wears down batteries.

It wears down absolutely everything having to do with the car because now you're using

your starter 80 percent more than you would because you go on a trip and you start your

car once every several hundred miles on a tank of gas or whatever if you're driving a long trip.

Now you stop and start your car every single time you touch the break.

That's dumb.

Yeah.

And again, the theory behind it was that if your car is not running, it's A, not

polluting, but B, your saving fuel.

So the question then becomes, is it, do we outweigh the cost of having to replace

that small little auxiliary battery every three or four years?

Because apparently that seems to be what's happening.

Your starter, your starter is being used significantly more now than it was pre this

option.

And there's people out there, John, that will argue that a starter from new has, and I'm

just going to throw a number out there.

I don't know what the number is, so don't don't count this, that a brand new starter

has a predetermined number of cycles.

Let's use 1500 cycles, OK, which may equate to 150,000 miles.

So if you had to replace your starter once every 150,000 miles, you're probably not going

to complain about it.

Wear and tear.

OK.

Right.

Once every 10 to 12, 13 years, you may have to replace a starter in your car on average.

OK, so let's take that 1500 starts.

Now you're 150,000 mile or 10 or 12 year time period has now been cut drastically down

because rather than only starting your car two or three or four times a day, you're doing

it at every freaking stoplight.

Right.

It turns into 200 times a day.

Right.

So you've taken those 1500 starts or whatever that number is, and you've

considered you've cut down considerably the number of starts or life expectancy.

Right.

An old fellow once told me, if you've got a knife that's sharp, what's the absolute

worst thing you can do with that knife?

Cut something.

Well, yeah, because it'll dull it.

Exactly.

That's the worst thing you could do with anything that's new to use it.

Right.

A starter, same thing.

It's made to start, but every one time you start it, it reduces its life expectancy.

That's my train of thought, and I'm sure that John feels the same way, and I'm

sure many of you guys feel the same way.

And yes, there's going to be some engineer out there who says BS to both of us, but

we live in reality, folks.

Starters don't last forever.

They do only have so many cycles on them.

And if you're, if it's shutting off and the starter is engaging at every

frigging stoplight, that's not going to take long for a drill.

It just stands to reason you're going to wear it out quicker.

And then the engineers put it under the intake.

Oh, yeah, in some vehicles.

Yep.

Thanks.

Tell you what to come or tell you to Sandra.

Yeah.

So cat, cat like North Star.

I want to, I want to take that argument out of the equation just for a second,

John.

Okay.

Let's say the wear and tear is not an issue.

Okay.

Let's, let's just say the wear and tear is not an issue.

Let's say the MPG savings or the harmful effects to the environment.

It's doing its job.

Okay.

It's saving the environment and you're, you're saving considerable amounts of

fuel.

Let's say all of that is true for one second.

It's damn well annoying.

If anything, and I'll tell you why, not because your car shuts off, but because

when you take your foot off the brake, there is that split second that the car

has to start.

Mm hmm.

And then kind of engage into gear again.

Right.

Before you can start rolling forward.

And what happens is you let off the brake instinctively.

You want to touch the gas.

So you're sitting there for two or three seconds and then all of a sudden

you turn on that engine.

Everything's kind of jarring because nothing's engaged to its full potential.

Some again may argue that, you know, you get used to it.

Now I've never driven one of those.

What happens on a hill?

Well, again, so modern vehicles will, would automatically engage the

parking brake while you're waiting.

Okay.

Electric parking brake, mind you.

Okay.

But yes, you, some vehicles do have an anti rollback feature because it essentially

would put the car in park for you.

Wow.

Cause it's all electronic, right?

So again, we talk about all of these electronics.

It's not just stop, start.

There's a lot of other things that are going on there.

Extra wear and tear.

More computer.

I'm going to, I'm going to say something else.

Stupid.

Is there, is there, uh, cause I have no idea.

I mean, hell, that car I drive around's 30 years old.

Um, is there a stop, start feature only on automatic?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, it stands to reason they don't sell manual transmissions anymore.

Okay.

And if they do, if they do very few, okay, your sports cars, you can't buy a

pickup truck with a manual transmission anymore.

Right.

So what would you have that's got a manual on it, uh, an Austin mini or mini

Cooper, whatever they call it.

No.

Okay.

Some sort of Kia soul or some of your BMWs, maybe your low end Kias and

Hyundai's, your Chevy Cruz, of course, Chevy doesn't make any cars anymore.

So no, they don't make any.

Your Mustang would have a standard transmission on it.

Corvette Chevrolet doesn't make any, any cars.

They, they make the crossovers and that's it.

No Corvette and they have SUV crossover things, but no, no sedan, no sedan.

Chevy trucks is your base car now.

Okay.

Wow.

All right.

Way to go.

There you go.

So again, we're not talking facts here.

Okay.

We are all we're talking about is, is our reality in, in the feeling of some of these

things.

Do I think again, like I said, let's take the wear and tear out of the, out of the

equation for a moment.

John, do you think for one second that for the inconvenience of having to deal

with stop start, that you're saving enough fuel or saving the planet enough to

warrant the extra effort and cost that goes into making that happen?

A whole hardly never.

I mean, I, I can tell you, I haven't looked at the black and white numbers.

No one, no one showed them to me.

Maybe somebody will put them in this comment section and show them to me.

But what are the black and white numbers of the same vehicle prior to

start and stop and with start and stop?

What is the gain?

I don't know.

Yeah.

And so to piggyback off of that, there is a cost involved in making that feature

happen.

Some will say it's just electronics.

Maybe you're right.

But somewhere along the way, it cost GM, Ford, Stellantis, all the manufacturers

out there who are using it because it was mandated to be done.

It cost them engineering dollars to put that feature on there.

And if we get rid of it, we're going to talk about this down the road.

So hold on to this thought, think about it.

If we get rid of that feature, in theory, should the price of the car go down?

Don't answer that.

We're going to kind of combat to that because that's part of what these EPA

deregulations say may happen.

Let's move on to the next one, John, and that is EV mandates.

Do you have EV mandates in Missouri or did you?

I think so.

I didn't have anything to do with it.

Still driving a 30-year-old car, no idea.

I see them pass by me on the highway.

I see them broke down in the wintertime on the side of the road, but no idea.

So in the US, there was EV mandates put in by the previous administration

that said by, I don't know what year it was, you don't have to forgive me, 2030.

I believe maybe it was 2035.

Either way, that all new vehicles sold would have to be electric.

So it would not prohibit you from buying a used gas engine, because after that point,

they would all be used, but the mandate basically stated somewhere along those lines.

And any and all governmental rebates to buy one would cease.

And again, I'm speaking just from what I know from the past and somewhat here in

Canada is that in certain provinces and states, the state governments and

provinces would say, I'm going to give you $4,000 in tax credit if you buy an EV.

And what that was supposed to do was help lower the cost to make the EV look more attractive.

Well, when they're 25% more expensive to begin with, right, I said, I'm not against EVs.

But what I'm against is you telling me that that's my only choice if I want to buy a new one.

And I'm also against the fact that you're going to take away any incentive to buy a cheaper vehicle.

So I will be 100% on board with buying an EV vehicle, even in the used market down the road,

if I can get similar mileage on a charge as I do with the gas.

So in, you know, we're talking if I can get five to 600 miles out of a tank of fuel.

And I'm not just saying equal, like you've got to sell me on this, I need more.

I need more than what my gas car can do to sell me on this.

Also, it needs to be either at the same price or less money than an equivalent gas powered

in order to entice me to buy it. And I don't want to be forced.

I like EVs. I've driven one a couple of times. They're frigging fast. They are torquey as all get out.

I haven't driven one, but I've ridden in a Tesla Plaid and it was impressive.

Yeah. Like, don't get me wrong. The speed and performance you get out of an EV hands down

is way, I shouldn't say way, is a lot better response than a gas powered engine.

My problem is I come from a gas, gasoline alley, gas power, gas smell, engine sounds,

not just burning rubber and whirring noises. And don't pump that through a speaker for me either.

Thanks, Edelbrock. Magnaflow. Thanks, Magnaflow.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at SEMA in my life.

That wasn't a mock E. I think that Magnaflow had that set up on, wasn't it?

It was. Back in 22. So, EV mandates as of the breakdown, as of the announcement

were gone. And they weren't in every state from what I'm understanding. They were in certain

states and most of those states would have been states that follow California. Obviously,

you know, California with the population that they have and the density had stricter regulations

and EPA mostly follow their doings. A lot of other states, Maine, as small as Maine is,

I think Maine has barely got a million and a half people and they follow California emission

standards. So, other states were following those, making the mandates kind of crazy,

but not all states had them. But as of now, apparently, those mandates are supposedly

gone. Again, you folks can correct me, but I think that's part of this deregulation.

And I know we talked about Stop, Start for just a second and we talked about

the EV mandates. Don't you think this is a Band-Aid on amputation? It's not going to permanently work.

I don't understand anything having to do with electric cars because the power has to come from

somewhere. I never understand that. People say electric cars or EVs, any of that stuff is zero

emissions. That's not true. You know, it's zero emissions of the tailpipe, but the carbon footprint

of recycling, disposing, creating, maintaining everything. And EV does not offset the EV

clean energy at all to me, ever, ever. And I can't get over that.

Because a lot of people don't think past the purchase of the car or think up to, they only

think from the purchase of the car forward. So if there was zero emissions related to the

manufacturing of the car and its battery and all the plastic and the tires and all that stuff,

and the cost of shipping those electric motors and all that raw material across oceans and across

the planet, and all that stuff, even if that was net zero, I still believe that from day one,

from mile zero forward with your EV, yes, there's no tailpipe emissions,

tires still wear out, which is minimal. They take a specific tire because they're heavier,

right? But tires wear out. The battery does not last forever.

And where does that battery go when it depletes? In the magical away place.

She threw it away. I talked about that earlier. It just goes away and gets recycled, but recycled

into what? Into what? So, but that's again, that one there, I think that the people who believe

that they are better for the planet, I think they can argue from from mile zero forward.

I think they have an argument there. But where they where I don't believe they have the argument is

that EV car at minimum takes just as much carbon footprint to build as a regular gas engine

plus the battery, right? So, there's a lot, there's a lot to unfold there and unpack, but

we're just dumb yokels, John. We don't know anything. We're not engineers. We can't argue that

because, well, you know, we're just, we're gasoline guys, right? So, it'd be different if

you were diesel guys, because every time you drive a diesel down the road and it puffs black smoke

out while you're polluting the earth. Sure. Yeah. Right? I mean, it's, it's soot, which falls back

down to the ground. Right. In which the soot came from. Right. Oh, we can't argue that.

Don't tell anybody I pour all my oil back in the ground.

Well, if that's where it came from, if you have the right number of rocks to sand filtration,

you can pour it back in there. You're fine. Oh, I've read that popular mechanics from 1956,

I know. How to change your oil. Seriously, folks, we're like, as much as you might think

that we're joking, there was an article that stated how to properly dispose of your oil

back in the 50s. Literally, it was into the ground. I mean, that's where, you know,

old Jed, the millionaire, that's where he found it. He found John's oil change,

made a millions of bucks. You discard it. He moved to California. Then he got regulated.

So, what are the results of doing these rollbacks on these regulations, John? Like,

what should we see as a consumer? Should we see cleaner air? Should we not see

black smoke coming out of the tailpipes of diesels? Should we not see the coal-fired power plants

generating power to charge these batteries on these EVs? Will we run around with a windmill

sticking off the roof of car? Like, where does this go? What is the benefit to deregulating?

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You might have some answers. Yeah, what do you got? What can help so?

I'm reading that federal funding for the state of Illinois was $148 million from 2022 to 2026

to build EV charging stations. Also $14.9 billion in federal grant funding to support

charging projects. Both of those numbers will be lost in Illinois.

And $7 million in federal funding to repair or replace EV chargers. And some of the mandates

in that Illinois has is that all new single-family homes and multi-unit residential buildings

must be constructed with EV capable parking spaces and associated power.

Missouri does not have a consumer mandate for EV vehicles, but for its state agencies it does.

That 50% of the state agency's fleet vehicles must be EV. So lead by example,

I guess what they were getting at there, I'd say. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, the guy,

they're trying to get their fleet vehicles back to electric, you know?

Yeah. And again, I think, you know, without causing a huge argument, which we may already

have done, I think in certain cases, fleet vehicles within a municipality or a state affair,

EVs probably would do the trick because as a rule, they're not generally crossing,

you know, 10,000 miles a day. They're going commuting,

right? Whether it's meter reading, parking attendants or city workers, whatever it happens

to be, they're not going far from home base. So if you've got an EV that gives you 250 miles in

a charge and you're just potting around, makes sense that that car would suffice in that particular

situation. But again, we got to go back and talk about, you know, charging. Where is the charging

energy coming from? Right? That dirty, dirty, dirty coal plant. Dirty, dirty, dirty wind.

Dirty, dirty, dirty wind. Right? Like, wind is not free, folks.

Solar is not free. Water is not free. Obviously, coal is certainly not free. Energy costs money.

Lithium is not free. Lithium, cobalt, all plastic. It's all not free. So the whole point, I think,

at least in the article or the press release that I watched with Lee Zeldin, who was the

EPA minister leader, whatever you call them down there, and the president,

in theory, they were talking that by reducing or rolling back these mandates and all this stuff,

the doing the deregulation was cost savings. And the number that they used was

$2,400 US average savings on a new car. That's it. That's it. That's kind of like peeing in the ocean.

So, again, $2,400 per person, I guess, or per vehicle.

A, it should be more than that. Cost of new cars today is absolutely ridiculous, but

also, B, will we see it? I won't. And I'll tell you why. I don't think that we will.

Yes. Since COVID, which I think in 2020, I think that was kind of that

over the edge when car prices, new car prices just took off. I think that since then,

people have been buying cars, proving to the manufacturers that they'll pay $80,000, $90,000,

$100,000 plus for a pickup. That they'll pay $70,000, $80,000 for an EV. And that the cheapest car

that you can buy in the US right now is still over $37,000. Wow. Where are my cobalts,

cavaliers, Ford focuses for $15,000? Oh, I forgot. They're back in the 90s.

That's why I'm invested in Chevy Ventures.

Is that like a growth venture?

It is a growth venture. So far, we're up to three of them in our family.

Money in the bank, isn't it? Oh, yeah.

So earlier in the episode, I asked if you thought the auto stop start was, if we got rid of it,

if it was going to save you money. According to the EPA, $2,400 on every new car you should see,

which you won't. The manufacturers are not going to relinquish that extra $2,400 to you.

They're going to add their pocket. So like I said earlier, no savings.

Oh, wow. Who has seen this completely foreseeable end?

So somebody was quoted as saying, no more climate change participation trophies.

And I think what they were getting at with that was

no more virtue signaling over cars. No more. I'm going to put this dumb little feature in here

that's going to save you thousands of dollars, which I don't believe stops start saves you

anything net. No. Okay. Maybe you say it was another it was another band-aid on the amputation.

Yeah. Hell yeah. Right. It might save you a tenth of a mile per gallon over

a whole tank of fuel.

Maybe. And even if that's being generous, what does that cost you? Pennies.

For what? Just a $6 battery you've got to replace?

It's for the battery you got to replace and the starter you got to replace and every other damn

thing and relays and fuses and everything.

Well, John, because I know that right from the beginning, anybody who's listens to us,

who may be like-minded, may feel the same way that we do. But there's going to be a few people

out there who see the thumbnail and see the title who are going to watch this. They're going to be

so mad by halfway through. They're not going to hear what we're about to say right now at the end

of this episode anyway. Right? Is I think that the CAFE standards that have been set forward

as of right now have caused several problems within the automotive industry. One,

unreliable cars. And I'm not just talking used cars. I'm talking unreliable new cars,

which in turn follows the unreliable used car. Because if you think it's unreliable

at zero mileage, we've got 100, 150, 200,000 on it. When you and I are buying it,

let's see what the problems are. You think it's unreliable now? When do you drive it?

You're right. A Lou Glock. It's stock, man. So, and then at the very end of it,

I think that what we need to do is rethink the whole thing. We're not trying to get better

fuel economy. What we need is more reliable, and again, I know this is never going to happen,

what we need is more reliable vehicles that last longer. Because if I was ever in a position to

be able to buy a brand new car, I'm the type of guy that's probably going to keep it for a long

time because of the price of it. But if it's reliable, I am going to keep that for a very

long time. And when the time comes to replace it, if it was in fact a reliable vehicle, I may go buy

another one. But because I am who I am, and you are who you are, we've talked about this plenty

of times in different scenarios. We are the original automotive recyclers. We are doing the

world of favor by keeping the old ones, albeit maybe not as fuel efficient, and maybe not as good

for the environment. But I feel that that far outweighs the carbon footprint of pumping a bunch

of plastic onto the friggin' roads day out over price crap. Who's winning? I truly believe it's

you with your 89 Jeep Comanche or Cherokee. Oh, 89 Cherokee. I think I've outworn my carbon footprint

on that. Twice over probably at this point. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. But see, you know,

because everything you're saying works into planned obsolescence. Oh, for sure. The dealers

would never sell a brand new vehicle if it was reliable. Well, there you go. It's no different

than buying an iPhone. It's no different than buying a new dishwasher or a refrigerator that

orders Doritos for you or anything. All that crap is going to break and you're going to get a

different one and you're going to get another one. Automated manufacturers are going to have

things three years. That's how long they want you to have it. You're going to have a five-year car

alone. You can keep the car three years, roll it over into the next one because you don't want to

have to put tires and windshield washer fluid and wipers and maintenance and anything on these

vehicles. And they'll give you another one with all the brand new Geegogs fasteners and crazy

coolness. And you're going to keep up with the Joneses. That's going to happen. And they don't

care about the second owner. They don't care about the third owner. They don't care about anything.

It's brand new. Take the wrapper off it. Take it out of the box. I don't care what happens to it

after three years because the auto manufacturers are going to be selling you another one.

Yeah. Well, I'm going to make this one last point and then we're going to end the episode.

But the Ford CEO, Jim Farley, has recently come out saying that we've got 6,000 bays

in our dealerships that are empty of repair techs. And how do you fix that?

Right? That tells me that when I go to the Ford dealer and I need to get my Ford repaired

and they tell me it's going to be three weeks because our schedule is backed up that A,

they don't have enough techs or B, they don't have proper qualified techs because most dealerships

don't have an in-house transmission mechanic anymore. They frame it out to the local transmission

shop or the Ford dealer across town or in the next town over that does have one.

Or all of their mechanics are plug-and-play. Parts replacers. Yep. Parts replacers.

Gone are the days. They plug in their little, gone are the days so you can repair it. Yep.

You plug in the computer, the car tells you what's wrong with it. You take out the transmission,

you put in another one, zoom, the customer goes down the road. Yep. I had to turn a customer away

the other day at my shop. I've got two licensed technicians that run in my shop. We got four

bays. We're always working on something. I had to turn a customer away that day because I didn't

have the information I needed to make a proper diagnosis. And they're like, well, can't you

just put the part on? I'm like, I can throw a part at it. I said, but if it doesn't fix the problem

that we think it is, because we weren't able to properly diagnose it, you just paid $600 for the

part, $300 for me to install it, your $900 plus tax into something that did not fix it. Who are

you going to be mad at? I don't want that responsibility. So right to repair is another,

that would be a great episode to talk about too at some point. Right to repair. You said earlier

that manufacturers don't care about us in five years down the road. When we're buying that car

with 100 or 150,000 miles, they don't care about us. So all the information that we need to fix those

cars after they're out of warranty, they're not sharing. Not to mention a lot of the newer cars,

if you put a part on and you fix the problem, the car still has to have its little butt padded.

And you have to help it and tell it that you fixed it. And it has to agree with you.

That is a big deal. Not just fixing a car, but letting the car tell you, okay, it's fixed,

and all the lights go out, and it's magic. A little black box works right. Tomorrow it doesn't.

If that last little segment is not a great segue into the next generation of car mechanics,

there's plenty of jobs out there for you. You're going to be learning a lot of electronic

hands-on over the mechanical hands-on because everything in a car today is electronic.

So look, there's jobs out there for you if you want them. And if you're willing to put the

elbow grease in to learn a trade, whether it be mechanics, auto body,

customization, street rods, whatever it happens to be, if you're looking to get into a trade,

there's a trade out there and they are begging for you to come work for them.

We also partner with the RPM Foundation and one of their big key attributes is raising money

to make sure that these kids have an opportunity to learn a trade in school.

So I think that it's a great idea. Maybe there's somebody out there who can figure out how to

make a reliable engine that's A, good on fuel, and B, reliable, but C, doesn't cost an arm and a leg

to repair down the road. So we need those people getting into the trades, getting into the automotive

trade especially to help deal with things like what we talked about here on this episode, John.

I think this is great. I think it is a step in the right direction. I hope that there is

some cost savings there. I hope that we do see that, but I also hope that we learn new ways

to find out how to make up for the miles per gallon, the reliability,

this cost savings on these outrageously priced new cars today.

I don't know, man. It's ridiculous. I can't even tell you the last time I tried to go look at

or even investigate the price of a new car or truck. Seeing six figures for a vehicle,

I can't handle it. I absolutely can't handle it. Well, by the sound of things, we'll all be driving

slate trucks here in the very near future anyway. Oh, yeah. I'll grab a pot for a bare bones basic

truck two-seater. Roll up windows. There you go. Yeah. If you guys have any information that you

want to share with us on this topic, go ahead and leave it in the comments. If you're watching this

on a platform that doesn't allow comments, head on over to our website, getoutanddrive.com.

Go down to the very bottom of the page to the list or hotline. Tell us what you feel,

whether we're right, wrong, a couple of idiots talking about stuff we don't know what we're

talking about, shouldn't be talking about. I don't know. You could be right, this guy.

Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for watching. Don't forget, National Get Out And Drive Day

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