Odometer Fraud Allegations, Upcoming Events, and a review of the GLC 300

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 Live on iHeartRadio and the Smoke and Mirrors Network.

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

We're going to try to talk to Eddie Conrad at Conrad Racing Injins in Belleville, texas.

I had a chance to drive the 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC 300.

I'll give you my impression of it.

We'll also have the crews in calendar and Conrad has this week in auto history.

And let's not forget stories making automotive news headlines.

Oh yeah, just ahead on the In Wheel Time car talk show, howdy, along with Mike out of this World, mars chief engineer and bottle washer King Conrad, along.

We always need more Jeff Zeekin.

I'm Don Armstrong sometimes, because nobody else wants to know it, No it should they ever want to be me.

I would today, would you?

I would just go for a ride in a helicopter, he doesn't want to be Mike Mars today.

Never been in a helicopter.

I think that'd be fun.

Okay, okay, wouldn't want to be in one for medical reason, but well, I wouldn't want to be one like his.

The one I was in was there.

Oh, it was air conditioned.

There was three of us in the back and two up front, with a pilot and somebody sitting beside him, leather seating, and it was nice.

What kind of aircraft was it?

It was a big one.

Where were you going?

We were just taking a ride over the top of Texas motorplex not motorplex, what's the one at the Dallas?

the Texas motorplex, yeah that one, the drag race or the?

roundy round.

Yeah, Texas motor speed.

No, that's Texas motor speedway.

Yeah, texas motor speedway is the roundy round.

Yes, that's paying for that.

No, we did not.

Who paid for it?

Mercedes Benz With their CLC Free helicopter rides.

That's right And there's CLC And if there were five of you in there.

It was probably a.

Well, i don't know, it could be an L four, but I was going to say it's probably a four or seven.

Could have been an R 22 that back.

No, it wouldn't be an R 22.

No, there's no, none of that.

All right.

Well, while we wait for Mr Eddie Conrad to get in touch with us, in the meantime and in between time, i'm going to do some headlines here, because I didn't get any in last hour, so there's always room for news headlines and what's going on.

I have some pretty interesting stories.

Yes, i, ainsley, shame on you.

You called Mars the chief engineer.

Well, david, you don't want to be associated with the chief engineer.

If you showed up today, David, if you showed up here every week and took the abuse Mars takes, you can be the chief engineer.

There's no abuse because you're the remote engineer.

David can fix anything when it comes to electrons.

That's who Mars calls.

I know, David's.

David is the man.

So I apologize for calling you the chief engineer, but you don't want to be that today.

You're much higher than that.

You're.

David's kind of like tier two.

He's tier one user about here Two is where tier one goes for help.

Okay, Right However you want to break it down and works for me, but you're going to Michigan with David in a couple of weeks.

Well, i'm not going with him, but I'm going up there to meet him.

Up there, yes, and you have to take a boat to his house.

Yes, from what I understand I've never been there It's the cottage and it's on.

I think it is a Lake Superior Lake here on one of those It's a.

is it here on?

It's right across the bay from.

Mackinac Island, which is no cars no cars, so I'm looking forward to a week up north, as they say, american Honda Motor Company is recalling nearly 1.2

million vehicles in the U?

S because the backup camera might not display an image at all while in reverse.

Now, for me, what I would do is I would put a picture of the Seuss and hang it out over the back, so when the rear view mirror can't, rear view camera came on, i'd see a picture of Seuss.

Then you couldn't go backwards, because you think Seuss is back there.

Well, it's just a picture of her.

It's a nice smile on her face.

Recall covers 2018 to 2023 Honda Odyssey minivans, the 2019 to 23 Passport midsize crossover and the 2019 to 22 pilot.

Because of a faulty media oriented systems, transport communication coaxial cable connector.

Oh, it's one of those who came up.

Yeah, it's one of these things Well.

Mars always buying more cable, so maybe it's Mars's fault to fix the issue, dealers will install a straightening cover over the vehicle cable connector.

Let's jump right to it.

I guess Dealers will notify on June 16th.

Owners will be notified starting July 24th.

Hopefully they have the parts in stock when they notify the owners.

We're not going to do that, which is not normal.

No, still waiting on a break part.

I'm sorry We're going to have to schedule you for another three months out because we don't have the parts and don't plan on getting any.

This is a very interesting story and I think that you could chime in on this.

You ready, conrad?

You're listening.

Yes, sir, holman Automotive Group and FedEx are accused in a lawsuit of conspiring to sell thousands of diesel fleet delivery vehicles with replaced odometers at inflated prices.

Oops.

The plaintiffs five consumers who purchased the vehicles in question and are seeking class action status say the company's actions have hurt small business owners who have significantly overpaid for delivery vehicles that are past their useful life Expectancies.

typically, courier services such as FedEx and United Parcel retire older vehicles.

Holman helped FedEx identify and scrap diesel fleet vehicles that had reached the end of their useful lives around 350,000 miles, according to the lawsuit.

However, the lawsuit states FedEx, beginning in or around 2011, pursued another revenue stream by remarketing the fleet vehicles instead of destroying them.

Holman is accused mutually agreeing with FedEx to commit odometer fraud as part of the remarketing enterprise.

The plaintiff seek statutory damages under the Federal Odometer Act of at least $10,000 per violation.

Yikes, don't mess with the odometer of a car, i guess in the digital world.

You can't roll it back, so you just got to replace it.

Well, and then you would have to have documentation.

Then you have to have a sticker right And it goes on the door jam that says this odometer has been replaced in this car.

It originally had so many miles on it when it was replaced.

The new odometer was zero or whatever.

Well, if you need those stickers.

Yeah, if you understand the programming you could probably go in and reprogram one to read a different mileage.

but that's at a pretty high level, That's generally very secure information.

But all they were missing is just the protocol of having the sticker and going through the notification.

If they would have done that, they wouldn't have been sued.

I actually replaced a speedometer that had the odometer in it.

This is years and years ago And that's how I found out how you do that legally.

But I will tell you that I mean, I didn't know anything about rolling back a speedometer And the only reason that I did it was because the speedometer that I wanted remember at the time you could only get 85 mile an hour speedometers Well, I wanted to have me one that said 150.

So I bought me a speedometer, went to all the trouble of pulling out the instrument cluster and replacing just that.

That portion of it looked great, ran great, did great, So well and today's, like Mars was saying, in today's electronics I can't pull the dash out of car A and put it in car B and have things work, because the integration of the vehicle identification number in all the computers will keep those things from working in different vehicles.

Yeah, they had.

This is back in the mechanical.

Yeah, but they had to do something more than just replace the speedometer.

They had somebody understood how to go in and reconfigure something.

Yikes, i don't want to have no part of stuff, even dogs, yeah, no, i don't even dogs.

And Mary Bear is making what?

twenty nine million dollars a year.

How much is Jim Farley making over at Ford Twenty four Police have found a number of Ford F one fifty pickups that were stolen last year from Ford Motor Company.

Holding lots in Michigan, at dealerships and at an auto auction in Arizona.

The owners of Casio CASCIO Motors used vehicle store in Scottsdale told the Detroit Free Press that officers rated the business in December and took four trucks.

The store paid an average of sixty five thousand dollars per day.

The pickups which did not realize, which it did not realize were stolen because Ford had not reported the missing.

Oh, it's now clear how the pickups disappeared.

In Michigan.

Police believe some were unlocked with the keys inside, which is pretty common around dealerships and car manufacturers and that sort of stuff.

It appears they were driven to Arizona And given clean titles using blank forms that had been stolen from Georgia in 2007.

A report from how do you, how do you think of stuff like that?

The report from an Arizona Department of Transportation Detectives said Ford believes it is losing about seven vehicles a week To theft.

Wow, wow, well, you know, think about it when you have.

At that point in time they had tens of thousands of vehicles and storage lots.

You know how much money were they spending on security to watch them Apparently not a mob, You know and you look at these dealerships that have thousands of cars and inventory Cars get stolen at the dealerships as well, for any assortment of reason And there's also when they unload them from the trucks, the driver backs them off.

They pull them in a certain area, down the street or side parking lot, leave the keys in them, right, anybody can walk up to it.

I mean, i've seen that many times There was a Dodge dealership that I did business with when I helped Amy buy her Dodge Challenger.

It's out there off to 90.

I think it was.

Anyway, they had a lot.

There was Pat Jim with cars.

They had another lot that was probably four, six blocks, maybe eight blocks away, a fenced off with barbed wire around the top of it A lot, and it was in an old shopping center that had closed.

But this was all and that lot was jammed with cars.

That's not on Cammon back then.

They have to have a way to manage the keys.

Some of them do like a key box, so all the sales people have a kind of like a lock box your realtor uses, So they all have a key to get into this lock box Coca-Cola key.

yeah.

And that's how they get the keys in and out.

Those are very hard to break into, but they can be broken into as well.

But you can't have a thousand vehicles and all the keys piled in a bucket somewhere.

Yeah, that ain't gonna work.

At least one title company in Phoenix has stopped titling 22 and 23 F-150s after getting burned on a truck It processed in November.

What if it's happening there, it's probably happening here too, yep.

Anyway, i thought that was an interesting story.

Automotive news.

thank you.

I don't know why I didn't edit this, but I will edit it and bring it back to you at another portion of this program before we finish today.

The used vehicle market appears poised to strengthen somewhat through the second half of 2023, according to Cox Automotive Chief Economist, jonathan Smoke.

How would you like to have that last name.

That'd be cool.

Or how about Joe Smoke, joe Smoke?

It's been a tough year for the used vehicle business.

The new vehicle market is increasingly focused on more expensive models and luxury share, which has trickled down to impact used vehicle pricing.

Smoke said interest rate hikes and uncertainty about a US debt default also disrupted sales activity and the used vehicle market has bled some buyers who can't find certain vehicle models or trims they want.

Now the market seems to be on the cusp of improving, though consumer affordability issues and rebounding new vehicle competition have noticeably sapped it of the strength that exhibited just two years ago.

A scarcity of used vehicles less than four years old because of the COVID-19 pandemic induced lack of new vehicle production in 2020 and 2021.

Smoke said that downturn spelled trouble for the used vehicle supply because sales into inventory channels that feed the market, leasing volumes and rental and fleet sales fell dramatically.

Modest price decreases are likely to continue in the second half of 2023, according to an updated year-end Cox automotive estimate.

So, with that being said, i would imagine that if you're in the market for a used vehicle that hang on that things are going to be better for you, not so much for the used vehicle.

Well, prices go up, prices go down.

Lots of things impact that.

Yeah, and that's you know that is a And used car market's been hot.

prices have been up big time.

It's been the inventory.

Well, lack of inventory, yeah.

I checked the other day.

I was granddaughters wanting cars but I was looking at the truck you know the in-wheel time truck and I was looking at it And according to Edmunds it should really sell now for what I paid for three years ago.

How much what year is it 2015.

It's a 2015 Ram 1500.

Yes, we got the cat skin leather interior in it.

It's the low star edition.

How many cats did it take, do what.

How many cats did it take?

Well, when you go to skinning them, they're really hard to hold on to, but they've got it figured out, so cat skin can handle it.

that's not my problem.

But So how much is the 2015 worth?

Well, it says it should sell between 19 and 21.

I paid 24.

Three years ago.

That's pretty good, that is good.

But, again.

Think about you traded in the F-bomb and got good money on that.

Yeah, the F-bomb.

I've been waiting to call it for so long.

What a great idea.

But I knew Leslie would get mad at me.

You know what we could do.

We could make us some money.

We could have a bunch of F-bomb T-shirt No F-bomb stickers that go on there, take off the F-pace and put F-bomb on it.

But you know you got, but you made.

I thought they made a good fair, the OMB.

Yeah, I think they made Same number of letters.

They made a fair price an overly fair price on what they gave you for trading on that.

But again, that's driven by exactly what you talked about.

The used car market is still riding high in valuation I agree, especially on cars that are well taken care of, which, by God, hers has been.

And it's a unique car It is.

You know, there's not a lot of.

Jaguars out there.

It's black and it has that cream colored interior.

It's really nice.

Oh, it's a nice looking car, and what makes it unique is that it's not in the shop.

And that yellow light on the dash.

None of that's on there.

We got that.

That took us what $5,000 to get fixed, all because of a bad ground wire Five grand, bad ground wires.

Or, and another one, emmons has got a 2002 Corvette convertible blue, 32,000 miles or something.

You know it's low miles And you know they're they're.

They've got a deal, hot deal 23,000 on that car.

Wow, that's a good price.

Well, you know, but it depends on where you go, look.

So that's your granddaughter right, you're going to buy it?

No, No, it's out of my range.

Well, she does not need that car.

Oh no, i was talking about for me, really.

Are you ready to take on?

another car payment.

No, that's the problem.

That's why I haven't got one In the meantime.

He is Becky's, not While you're spending all that money.

Why don't you buy a new computer so we can get the damn zoom calls on the air, David and I have discussed a path forward for that.

Well, i hope so.

Yeah, Because that that needs to go away.

Well, if David can, fix broke computers.

I got a few of them at the house.

Well, but it looks like we're laptop central here that we're selling laptops?

I understand, yeah, but only three of them work.

Mine works just fine.

Mine is doing dandy, all right, so we're not going to have any conrad, and I assume that he probably is watched or listened to the show today and went hell no.

I'm not going to be on there.

Somebody's here.

Dwayne Vance, also with Hot Wheels.

No, he's, here Is Dwayne.

That's Dwayne Dwayne's here a little early.

Okay, dwayne, you just hang on, because we got a little bit, don't?

touch anything.

Don't touch it.

Let's do the cruise in calendar.

Shall we please.

Yeah let's do that.

Let's do that, okay, so next Friday is cruise and bruise Gosh, this blend of alcohol and cars at the Penny Beer Garden.

It starts at 6 pm.

Well, you're assuming that everybody's going to get all liquored up at this event.

Have a beer, a beer and enjoy the camaraderie.

Find a designated driver.

Either that or get some non-alcoholic beer.

And then also July 8th.

Next weekend is the Grace Woodlands church on Saturday from 9 am to noon.

Come admire the incredible classic, muscle and exotic cars.

Pretty good little family event.

We don't need a commercial, just the dates of the good old family event July 15th at 9 am.

the Texas Road to Revolution cruise, leaving from the Black Bear Diner in Humboldt, texas, october 28th.

Are they?

going to Washington DC.

No, they're.

You mean the US Capitol building.

No, they're going through the East Texas.

Okay, piney Woods.

I guess, nobody caught that Nobody understood what I was saying?

Yeah, I missed it Road to Revolution.

Oh Oh, january 6th, no different thing.

Also, october 28th the Oak Turbo Fest instead of October.

Oak Turbo Fest is at the Shriners location in Waco, texas.

I thought that was a pretty creative naming Back to you, Don.

Thank you because you're going to run me out of time because I only got a short period of time, he can do this.

That's what he does back Time now for this hour's car review 2023 Mercedes-Benz GLC300.

Available trim levels There's only one.

That's this one, the GLC300.

Review trim level is a complete redesign for 2023.

This is considered a small SUV, has five seats in it.

Exterior changes complete redesign and it's nice.

Exterior features nicely proportioned grille with enlarged Mercedes-Benz emblem in the middle of it.

It's very large.

Everybody can see what it is when it's coming.

Big, conservatively designed alloy wheels, fake brake ducts behind the rear wheel openings subtle and a subtle nod to performance.

It's just a little thing that I picked up on.

If you look at it down the side, it's nice, I like it.

Chrome dual exhaust trumpets or strumpets on the lower rear valance That's very nice too.

What I liked about it?

the overall styling classy, stylish and sexy.

What could use improvement?

Nothing, Don't touch it.

You've done good Interior highlights, high and luxurious appeal with styling, great controls and materials, Smooth center console covers over the cup holders and the console storage and they did this so cool.

Yeah, so it's got a smooth cover that goes over the top of the cup holders and that blends right into the size and shape of the center console cover for your elbow.

It was brilliant.

Why I've done this before?

The design.

Yep A high-zoo option is eye-popping.

Rear seat is roomy for the size vehicle.

this is Cargo trunk room adequate for a road trip.

This is a small SUV now.

Rear seat comfort, ac controls and the screen is what I liked about that.

What could use improvement?

The cell phone holder is kind of hard to get to.

It's kind of tucked up under the dashboard through the center console and cup holder.

So they could do a little bit better in that department.

but it's not going to deter me from buying this thing.

Did this have the?

dual roof, extra large sunroof Yeah, i think so.

Pan-ready, 2-liter, turbocharged 4-cylinder and a mild hybrid system has 255 horsepower, 295 pound-feet of torque and through a 9-speed automatic transmission.

it runs great.

It works great together.

I'll tell you what.

say what you will about Mercedes-Benz, i don't care, it is a top notch, class act.

and boy the styling on this thing.

on the interior Wow.

Well, Angie's got a GLC 300.

Her hers is 2018.

She loves it and it's.

It's a gorgeous interior on the car.

It's complete redesign and I'll tell you what.

That interior, that dashboard, all of it it just is amazing.

23 miles per gallon, city 31 highway for a combined of 26.

I got 28.1

miles per gallon over 378.

Perned nine miles.

But I liked about it Plenty of power and get up and go.

What could use improvement?

Sometimes the transmission is a little slow to downshift.

Now I will tell you that I am a two foot driver left foot break, right foot gas and I can be pretty quick between the two.

Cars aren't designed to understand that It can confuse a car.

Yes, it can And I use both pedals.

So bad on me, but I'm telling you it was a little slow to downshift at times because I'm sure I confused the.

Well, you're also used to driving a stick too.

Well, there's that.

But I've always driven with two feet And I know that's not that what I was taught or how I was taught to drive with automatic transmissions, but I do now and know I don't ride the brake, thank you.

Right and handling smooth but agile.

What could use improve?

but nothing, and this was kind of surprising.

To base trim prices 49, 1.

Prices tested was 56, 650 and for amount of content for this vehicle it's worth it, wow.

Base model prices 47, 1.

But they got to pay for Lewis Hamilton somehow.

Good one.

Yeah, that's that's for you.

You did that.

I know The competitors the Acura RDX.

Now, i'm sorry, i don't really think that a Acura RDX can really compare to this, but 41, 550 is where it starts Audi Q5, 43, 5 and the Volvo X60, 43, 450.

So it's a little bit higher priced going in than those other vehicles, but those are the closest competitors.

This is a complete redesign.

I have to underscore that.

Not that the outgoing model was bad, no, but boy, this one who is this sweet?

You know, it's funny how they build a car and then they take and go OK, how are we going to improve it?

I don't know how they improved it, because I don't remember the old one you do, but I will tell you that this thing is so weak.

Have you driven it yet?

Oh my gosh.

Well, when and if you do, i think that you're going to be impressed as well.

And that's my review of the 2024, no 2023, glc 300, formatic SUV.

Good looking car.

It really is, and it was beautiful white with a beautiful interior.

But the way that it was styled, really you go gee whiz.

Why don't they all do that?

Yeah, because you can do that kind of styling.

Maybe not at that price level, but you can do it.

Let me turn.

Let me turn your microphone on, mike, oh.

Hello, hello.

I also think that color makes a different tenant to you know Some of the styling.

You put the wrong color on there and it wouldn't look near as good I.

But I have a thing about white cars.

I love white cars, i do too.

They look classy to me and they clean, very clean, yes, when they're washed.

Well, they don't look near as dirty when they're dirty either.

Well, that's true, kind of like German.

No, i want to hear it go ahead.

We have guests waiting.

He's good.

He was gonna go there, but he thought Becky's list it's been one of their mornings.

There's no point making it even worse.

There you go.

What reminds you that the in wheel time car talk show is available 24 seven through the iHeart radio app.

Just look for in wheel time car talk.

We also video stream on Facebook.

Youtube at it will time, comm and podcasts are at your fingertips, and over a dozen of the most popular podcast outlets.

Hey, the in wheel time car talk show continues right after this quick break.

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 6 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 founders 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.

It'll 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 will 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, well, why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it?

Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts.

We promise you'll be impressed.

Whether you're looking to massage your original paint to a like new appearance, apply a ceramic coating, install a paint protection film, nano ceramic window tint or new windshield protection called Exo shield, gulf Coast Auto Shield is where Houston's car people go.

Curved your wheels instead of buying new one, i'd have them repaired.

How about a professionally installed radar detector?

Gulf Coast Auto Shield does that too.

Get a peek inside the shop and look at the services offered by getting online and heading to GC Auto Shield comm.

Better yet, stop by their facility at 11 275 South Sam Houston Tollway, just south of the Southwest freeway, and get a personal tour.

Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior.

Call them today 832 930 5655 or GC Auto Shield comm, the award-winning in-wheel time car talk shows available on the most popular podcast channels out there in 30-minute Episodes.

We realize our three-hour live show can be difficult to catch in its entirety, so now you can listen every day to a convenient fresh 30-minute episode.

Check us out on Apple podcasts, spotify, google podcasts, amazon music and audible, along with a dozen more in real time as the most informative automotive guest interviews and new car reviews, along with popular features including Conrad's car clinic and this week in Auto history, along with automotive news headlines.

Our live broadcast here is every Saturday 8 to 11, central on in will time calm, the iHeart app and on YouTube.

Be sure to say hello when we're broadcasting from the tailpipe syntakos cruise in Auto Ram and the Houston Auto show, among others.

Now It's easier than ever to hear about all things automotive all week long.

You're invited to join fellow car enthusiasts and becoming part of the ever-growing in-wheel time car talk family.

Don't forget those 30-minute podcast episodes on your favorite podcast channel.

That's it for this podcast episode of the in-wheel time 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 in wheel time comm website.

Podcasts are available on Apple podcast, spotify Stitcher, iheart podcast, podcast addict, tune in Pandora and Amazon music.

Keep listening and we'll see you soon.

Odometer Fraud Allegations, Upcoming Events, and a review of the GLC 300

About this episode

Mercedes-Benz GLC 300

Honda Passport

Honda Odyssey

Ford F

Dodge Challenger

Ford F150S

Dodge Ram

Jaguar Fpace

Chevrolet Corvette

Acura Rdx

Audi Q5

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show