Semiconductors are special materials that help control electricity in cars. They are used in many electronic parts to make sure everything works properly.
Actuators are parts that help move things in a car when they receive an electrical signal. They help control things like windows, seats, and engine functions.
A carbureted car is one that uses a device called a carburetor to mix air and fuel for the engine. This was how most cars worked before newer technology made them run better and use less fuel.
Electronic fuel injection is a modern way of delivering fuel to a car's engine using electronic controls. It helps the car run more efficiently and cleanly than older systems that used carburetors.
Car
Hyundai Excel
The Hyundai Excel is a small car that was made by the Hyundai company in the 1980s and 1990s. It was one of the first cars from Hyundai that people in the U.S. started to notice.
The Hyundai Santa Fe is a type of SUV, which means it's a larger vehicle that can carry more passengers and cargo. It's known for being comfortable and useful for everyday driving.
The Hyundai Elantra is a smaller car that is easy to drive and park. It's designed to be budget-friendly and gets good gas mileage, making it a popular choice for many drivers.
The Hyundai Sonata is a larger car than the Elantra, designed for comfort and space. It has many features that make driving easier and safer, which is why many people like it.
The Dodge Dart is a car that was made by Dodge, and the 1965 version is a classic model. It was known for being a reliable and budget-friendly option for many drivers.
A metal dashboard is the part of the car's interior that holds the controls and instruments, and it's made of metal instead of plastic. Older cars often had metal dashboards, which can feel more solid.
The slant six is a special kind of engine made by Chrysler that has six cylinders arranged at an angle. This design helps the car be more aerodynamic and makes the engine last a long time.
'Three on the tree' is a way to describe a car's gear shift that is located on the steering column instead of on the floor. It usually has three gears for driving forward.
The Hyundai Genesis is a fancy car made by Hyundai that is designed to be comfortable and stylish. It’s known for having a lot of nice features and is often seen as a good choice for people looking for a luxury car without spending too much money.
The Genesis GV80 is a new luxury SUV that offers a lot of space and comfort for passengers. It comes with many high-tech features and is designed to provide a smooth and enjoyable ride, making it a great option for families or anyone looking for a nice vehicle.
A 3.5-liter twin turbo engine is a type of car engine that is 3.5 liters in size and uses two turbochargers to make it more powerful. This helps the car go faster and use fuel more efficiently.
Near-luxury cars are those that have some luxury features but are not as expensive as full luxury brands. They aim to provide a good experience without the high price tag.
Leather seats are made from animal skin and are often found in nicer cars. They feel more luxurious than regular fabric seats and can last longer if taken care of.
A premium sticker price means the car costs more than what the manufacturer says it should cost. This happens when a lot of people want the car, but there aren't enough available.
'Search origin' means the extra money you might have to pay to find a specific car, especially if it's hard to get. This can make the car more expensive than just the sticker price.
The Jaguar E-Type is a classic sports car from the 1960s that many people admire for its beautiful looks and fast performance. It’s considered one of the best cars of its time.
The Oldsmobile Cutlass is an older car that was very popular in the U.S. for many years. It’s known for being a reliable car that many families used, and today it’s often remembered fondly by people who grew up with it.
LIVE
Welcome back, America, to all the cars I've loved before, your podcast around automotive history,
American history, and your history. It's where they all come together. In our inaugural season,
hey, it worked for the Titanic just fine. We have a guest here today that can be ready to talk to
you. This is Christian and my co-host, it's Doug. That's your prompt. Yeah, wake up over there and
ensure while he's coming back from his sleep mode or hibernate mode, whatever he was in.
Check us out online, carslove.com, carslove.com, where you will see pictures of the cars of
former guests. We'll have an intake form for you to be part of the conversation. Join in.
This is your podcast, America, so I see him nodding off and let's...
Doug, Doug, would you like to join the conversation and introduce our
very esteemed guest today, Mike? I'm awake, I'm awake. There he is, there he is.
Thank you, Christian. Just a reminder, because Christian can't remember this,
we're online with your favorite podcast. Whatever your favorite podcast platform is,
you should be able to find us through all the cars I've loved before or on the website
is christianwithday, carsloved.com. Today, we have a great guy on board. His name is Mike. He is
an IT professional. Mike, you want to do a quick intro on yourself beyond what I just shared,
very little. It's Mike Jensen, an IT professional, like you stated,
concentration on building large-scale networks and cybersecurity services,
long-time geek. Nice. Cars, probably a topic for another time, Mike, but cars have lots of
computer networks in them these days, depending on the age of your car. Maybe it's just a
bunch of wires. Maybe it has fiber optics, I don't know. Maybe they drive themselves now,
right? Yeah. They even, you know, they did back when I was a kid, you'd just kind of rig the belt to
the rear view mirror and you just put a brick on the accelerator, it worked fine. I was reading
something recently that said, you know, the thing these days is to be prepared for if you have
to repair a car 20, 30 years ago, there would be a wire hooked to a lever. And when you kind
of did this, it was a wire moving things up on a hinge device. Now it's all semiconductors,
it's all actuators, solenoids. So everything is moving by signal and so when you go to have a car
repaired now, you're not going to have a $100, $200, $400, $500 repair. It's not going to be
$800, $1,000, $2,000 talking to semiconductors, a specialized parts to say nothing of
supply chain constraints. So it really is a whole new world on the sophisticated cars
that Mike was talking about. But really, I mean, across the spectrum, across the entire spectrum,
top to bottom. Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt, Mike. I did want to chime in there.
No, no, I want to add to your just a funny, remember the days of the carbureted car and I
remember mid to late 80s, my dad saying, I don't want to buy a car that has electronic fuel
injection. I'm like, well, dad, the only cars left are Hyundai Excels. That might be what we end up with.
I don't want that. And then of course, next thing you know, he ends up with a car with
an electronic fuel injection because those were the only choices. I got to hop in here.
My mom was a teacher and worked with a fellow teacher who, and this must have been in the
mid to late 80s, who owned like one of the first Hyundai's that I think was commercially available
around. And the thing was just a hulking piece of something not real pleasant to look at, right?
They weren't pleasant to ride in. It was just not pleasing to the senses at all to be in it,
to be around it. Boy, you look at the cars right now. Go look at, I visited the Hyundai
factory in right outside of Montgomery, Alabama, where they make all the Santa Fe's in North America,
Lantras in North America, Sonatas in North America, maybe at least a few years ago when I went,
gorgeous looking cars, gorgeous looking cars. So it's really just in that, you know,
what is that past 20 or 30 years to see how things have evolved at car company?
Anyway, sorry, we got to get to Mike at some point. He's the guest. What are we doing?
We do. We do. If you wouldn't stop talking, then Mike, tell us about your first car,
first car you own. Any memorable car, yeah. You can talk about anything he wants to talk about.
He's a guest. He can. Well, let me just interject one thing. I wish today I could get a new car
with a lot of, you know, all those options removed, a more basic car that maybe with
some new technology, but I mean, I don't want my driving car, but I wish you could have an option
list where you could just take some things off. But anyway, first car was a 1965 Dodge Dart.
1965 Dodge Dart? Is that correct? Oh, wow. Oh, wow. What color? It was white.
And you'll love this one. It had a metal dashboard. I remember it was metal because
I had speakers that had like magnets on them that would attach to it. Nice. Well, that's safe.
So was this a two door, four door? That was a four door, and it was my grandmother's car.
Oh, nice. So it was driven by a sweet old lady on Sundays, right?
Yes, I got that from doing some extra chores or whatever. I love that.
Something, yeah. That was my first car. I do remember my cousin always helping me work on it.
Nice. So you kind of earned it by working on it, helping your grandmother out? Is that right?
Yeah, the family, doing some things for the family. And then I got, that was given to me after
I got 70 hours of working, I guess. Yeah. But it was a solid car. It last forever.
Took a look and it kept on ticking. Nice. That's the way to do it.
I like that. So did it have the famous slant six? Yes. Yes, it did. Yeah, but the round headlights and
I'm trying to think what else was that thing. I'm trying to remember, I think
it may have been a column shift. Column shift automatic, correct? Not automatic, no.
Three on the tree? Yeah, I believe that's what it was. I'm trying to remember if that was that one
or another one I had. Your grandmother drove a stick shift. Yeah, I'll retract it. I do think
that one was automatic. Okay. Yeah, I remember. I worked with the fellow once. This was,
I want to say, shortly out of high school or maybe in college. And older gentlemen to me,
we're talking, I guess, in the 90s at some point. And he drove a Dodge Dart to work every day.
Perfect. Immaculate. Immaculate. And he would come to work. He would park it. He would put
the car cover on it. He would go about his job. At the end of the day, he'd come,
reverse the process, hop in it and go home. And I came up to him and I said,
hey man, you did such a great job restoring this car or whoever you had restore it.
I said, really impressive. It looks back to showroom. And he said, no, I've had this car since
the day I bought it or whatever. And I've just kept incredible care of this thing. So,
I mean, like you're saying, indestructible lasts forever. And hey, you know, just take
care of the things you have. Speaking of lasts forever, so Mike, you mentioned the
redeeming quality about the metal dash, but what led you to move on from that car?
What happened to the car, if you recall? Well, that was, I used that car during my early
high school years. I think I was one of the first guys in the group to kind of have a car. And
it took a lot of abuse. I like where this is going. No, we don't. I mean, it hit a lot of
miles when I got it. So, it wasn't like it was going to last forever. But it was
fun to go out in because you didn't care what happened to it. I like that.
Yeah. A lot of stories there, definitely. What happened in the dart stayed in the dart.
Yeah. I think it did eventually just die. And I remember, I think I had it taken to the junk
yard. So, it was once last leg. It lasted a couple of years, maybe. Then I was born to
something else. What was either the next car or another car of significance in your life?
Well, we'll skip a car, but I mean, the next car was another Dodge Dart.
He's a fan of Dodge. He's got a type. He's got a type.
But this one was a two-door. And if you ever seen the early 70s Dodge Dart, the ones they used to
have the racetrack with a two-door, it's a nice looking car. But this was a six-door. I didn't
have an eight-cylinder version, which I did, but it was console shift. But anyway, it didn't
last long either. But the next car of significance would be a 1965 Buick Special,
which I did have it stored. So, what was so special about the Buick? I'm joking.
Well, it was a 1965. It had electric seats, electric windows, and it had a 310 Wildcat
engine and a Buick Wildcat. It was 300 horsepower. And it was a pretty quick car. It was like a
Buick Skylark. That's kind of what it was. It's a Skylark Special Edition.
Nice.
Yeah. It was nice.
And that was a two-door, four-door?
It was four-door, but it had a sporty edge to it. Well, it had a, not sporty, but it had a
powerful edge to it.
Yep. Did you get in some trouble with that car? Or did you baby it?
No, not really. I just remember going through having it painted and to factory specs. I got
the paint codes. I used to work at an auto parts store. I got the paint codes, the original
paint codes, and I had it reproduced.
Had the interior redone.
Yeah.
Love that.
Yeah. Back in the day, you could look it up in the GM paint codes for that year and you could
have it remixed. I think I added some metal flake to it, but it was blue in with a white top.
Sounds so pretty.
Blue interior. It was nice. It was nice. And at some point, I had that for years.
And at some point I ended up giving it to one of my siblings.
Because I think I was off to college and moving out. It was racking up some miles too. So
I gave it to my younger sister.
Moving on out.
Yeah.
Yep. I get it.
That's a great big brother right there.
Is there a third car in the sequence or that kind of rounds out either your childhood or
as you moved into adulthood?
Or maybe in reference to the Hyundai. Maybe there's a Hyundai lineage vehicle that you have.
Well, I mean, the current, my wife, we just purchased a Genesis,
GV80, which is the ultimate, I guess. But it was at a 3.5 liter twin turbo. That's pretty nice.
So what year is that, Mike?
I guess 2022.
Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Funny you mentioned because I was talking to a fan of the
show and she was saying, well, how come y'all don't talk about more recent cars?
I mean, the car is coming out today. Her favorite car is I think the GX60, which is the next step,
the step down from the one you have. And that's kind of her dream car.
So here you are kind of tying it all up with a bow talking about her favorite car
and bringing things current.
I was just going to say in reference to, we were talking earlier about the
birth of Hyundai in the United States and how far they've come.
Now they have a car you wouldn't know is a Hyundai at all.
Yeah. It originally started as a Hyundai Genesis.
Now it is its own line, much like Acura, but even a step higher. Indeed.
I agree with that. I agree with that. If you look at the car, I've not been inside one.
But, you know, an Acura guy, and last episode, we were talking a little bit about
near-luxury and what does that designation mean and what comes with that?
Well, it comes with, you know, the seats are some leather and some leather or some mix thereof,
but it is a way to kind of keep costs down. And for those for whom that's not a huge
buying point or must have, then you can, it fits in the budget more readily or more easily.
Did you consider anything else, Mike? And as you were looking at that car,
they are so shapely those cars. I mean, the beautiful from the back and the front
looks kind of like nothing else on the road. Did you have your heart set on it immediately
or did you kind of back into that? Well, my wife did a lot of extensive
research on the vehicle. This is her vehicle. And she did all the research.
And I tell you, it was right before things got really crazy with, you know,
getting bank loans and things like that. But we ended up, we actually purchased the car maybe six,
eight months earlier, and then the Genesis dealers backed out and they failed to deliver the car that
we had ordered and paid for down payment always. So we had to fly down to North Carolina to get
it because it was right before all the... Oh, wow. I've never heard of that. Goodness.
Yeah, this was in the times when you couldn't get a car and you were going to pay a premium sticker
or more and, you know, kind of post pandemic just coming out.
Oh, good point. Crazy times, crazy times.
My wife, before this, had a Tahoe, Chevy Tahoe, and we loved it. But to your, to Doug's point,
I said, you know, when we were looking for a new Tahoe, because we had got so much good
experience of having that one. Remember, we still have it. It's a 2007. I still have it.
But when you went to buy a new one, you're not only dealing with the price of the vehicle,
but the $10,000 search origin on top of it. So if I have to pay that much money, Chevy Tahoe,
it allowed us to look into some other areas because it meant, my God, why am I going to pay
that a Tahoe when there's another class that's above that I could probably get into. So...
Good point. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. It is a little bit of an Apple's largest thing,
but that's a curious, that is a curious turn to that story. Good deal.
No regrets, Ray. You love the car, right? Your wife loves it more importantly.
Oh, she loves it a mess. I remember looking to it on Lincoln, and they were at top,
they were putting on a $10,000 as well. And it's just funny how they're calling us back now though,
trying to re-engage. I wouldn't buy that. I wouldn't buy it now from them. But
yeah, they didn't want to, they didn't want to drop that $10,000 then. It was funny.
Supply and demand then for sure. Right thing happened. Right thing happened.
Good story. Well, they're selling too many now though.
Well, you're happy. Most importantly, wife's happy, as Doug pointed out. And I think we're
coming to the end of the conversation here as we wrap up. Any final thoughts, Mike?
I mean, there were any other car I would chime in with was, you know, I've had a couple of jeeps
in my life. And I do tend to like, you know, the openness of a Jeep, like, you know,
have a wreck or a CJ, CJI back in the day. Loved all those as well.
Rip all the doors off. Exactly.
Well, don't, don't, don't tell too much. We'll have you back in season two. Maybe we can do an
all Jeep conversation. But what do you say, partner? Any thoughts, Doug, before we wrap it up?
Yeah. Well, you know, I wanted to look, add something to the episode. I meant to do it
sooner, Mike, but so the most popular car the year you were born was a Jaguar E type.
Beautiful.
So I won't reveal your age, but that was a beautiful car. You know, it'll always be
part of you. And on the year you graduated high school, which I am told is 1980, but I
can't believe it was that long ago. It was the old cutlass. And I think it was just
that was the most popular car being sold in the US. So how far are we've gone?
That makes perfect sense.
And here we are with the Genesis.
Yeah, to wrap it up for the book.
Good stuff.
Well, Mike, it was great meeting you. I can see the passion. When you talk about it,
we'll have to have you back in a future season. I think this is going to end up
being our longest episode thus far. But hey, worth the time. Good to get to know Mike.
As always with my co-pilot, he says, find this podcast to all the cars I've loved before
at your platform of choice everywhere out there carslove.com, carslove.com, where you will see
pictures of us, pictures of cars, pictures of our guests. And hey, submit something to also
if you want to be part of the conversation, join. We have an intake for I call it an
intake form. Doug doesn't like that term. But hey, we just we love talking about it
and getting to know people and all the stories that have bandied back and forward. So,
hey, we look forward to seeing you next time on to all the cars I've loved before.
Thanks for joining us and we will see y'all soon. Take care. Take care.
About this episode
Mike Jensen shares his automotive journey, starting with his first car, a 1965 Dodge Dart, and the nostalgic memories tied to it. The conversation delves into the evolution of cars from carburetors to modern electronics, highlighting the challenges of car repairs today. Mike also discusses his transition to a 1965 Buick Special, emphasizing its power and features, and wraps up with his current vehicle, a 2022 Genesis GV80. The episode is filled with humor, personal anecdotes, and reflections on how car culture has changed over the decades.
Mike Johnson's automotive journey started with the ultimate hand-me-down - his grandmother's 1965 white Dodge Dart with the legendary slant-6 engine. After earning the car through family chores, Mike discovered the indestructible nature of Mopar's classic compact, complete with its metal dashboard and magnetic speakers. But this IT professional's story doesn't stop at one Dart - he bought a second early-70s 2-door version before finding his true passion project.
Episode Highlights:
First car memories: 1965 Dodge Dart from grandma with slant-6 engine
Why Mike bought TWO Dodge Darts back-to-back
The 1965 Buick Special restoration with factory paint codes
Installing a 310 Wildcat engine producing 300 horsepower
From auto parts store employee to meticulous restorer
Metal dashboards, magnetic speakers, and column shifters
Current ride: 2022 Genesis GV80 Ultimate - from Dodge to luxury SUV
The dealer who wouldn't deliver: Flying to North Carolina for the Genesis
Mike shares candid stories of high school adventures, what really "happened in the Dart," and how working at an auto parts store helped him source original GM paint codes for his show-quality Buick Special restoration. From earning his first car through family work to navigating pandemic-era car buying challenges, this episode showcases the evolution of an enthusiast from classic muscle to modern luxury.
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