An extended warranty is extra protection you can buy for your car to help pay for repairs after the regular warranty ends. It helps cover big fixes that can cost a lot.
A bumper to bumper warranty means the car company will fix almost everything on your car for a certain time or miles. It covers most parts except things that wear out like tires.
A drivetrain warranty means the car company will fix important parts that make the car move, like the engine and transmission, for a longer time than the full warranty.
Some companies that sell car warranties might not last long and could stop paying for repairs. Big, trusted companies usually keep helping even if your warranty ends.
Tongue weight is how much weight pushes down on the back of your vehicle from the trailer. Keeping it within limits helps your vehicle tow safely without problems.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a small pickup truck that can carry and tow things. The Limited version has extra features, and the 2025 model can tow up to 5,000 pounds safely.
The Hyundai Santa Fe is a mid-sized sport utility vehicle made by Hyundai. It is designed to carry people and cargo comfortably and can handle some towing tasks like pulling small trailers or campers.
A direct clutch transmission is a kind of automatic gearbox that uses a clutch to change gears. It works like a manual transmission but the clutch is controlled automatically. If you use it roughly, the clutch can wear out faster.
A differential is a part of your car that helps the wheels turn properly when you go around corners. The gears inside are mostly made to handle driving forwards, so pushing too hard in reverse can break them.
Clutch wear means the clutch parts get worn out from slipping or not working right. If you press the gas pedal lightly, the clutch might not fully grab, which can wear it out faster.
An aftermarket windshield is a new windshield put on a car by someone other than the car maker. Sometimes these can be tricky because if not put on right, they might cover important things like the car's ID number.
A VIN number is like a car's fingerprint. It helps people know exactly which car it is. Usually, you can see it through the windshield or on the door, and it needs to be easy to read for things like police checks or inspections.
LIVE
Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to a special edition of the car doctor program this normal Sunday. And I usually release a program Sunday afternoon or Monday morning is being preempted because a local sports team is playing at the Boston Garden. So we wish them well.
But I still wanted to cover a few things that came in this week. One of them is a review of the 2026 Infinity QX 80. And the model we're driving happen to be the QX 80 sport. The redesign for the 2026 Infinity QX 80 marks a major turning point in this flagship SUV. The trim level adds a more aggressive look to it.
It's certainly a brand's largest vehicle. It shares some mechanical pieces with some of the other lineup of the vehicle, but still it shares a lot with some of the other vehicles. But in its own way, it's also a little bit different. The sport model leans heavily into styling and being driver focused, not performance. It's still a ultra luxury SUV. That's the way I would call it.
And again, I'd probably call anything over $100,000 that kind of ultra luxury nameplate under the hood. Well, gone is the V8 engine. It has been replaced by a 3.5 liter twin turbocharged V6. It produces a pretty impressive 450 horsepower.
And what's even more impressive, 516 foot pounds of torque, and it's paired with a smooth shifting nine speed automatic transmission. Like I said, Infinity retired the V8 powered engine vehicle. I guess the way to say it sometime back, but you won't miss it. This V6 engine does really, really well. Acceleration is strong. It's effortless.
I've read that it does zero to 60 in about six seconds. It has a maximum towing capacity of 8500 pounds. So it's a capable choice for people that are hauling a boat, a trailer, maybe a small horse trailer, things like that.
The sport trim doesn't do anything for horsepower. It's really just about the look, more aggressive appearance overall, unique grille design, darker exterior trim, blacked out accents distinguish it from more traditional luxury trim in the lineup.
It has large 22 inch wheels that further reinforce the sport model's bold personality and identity. The overall effect is this full size SUV looks more modern and assertive without, you know, straining too far from what it is. It's a three passenger luxury SUV.
Inside the sport trim introduces a distinctive interior theme that's up to the rest of the range. It has, and it took me a little while to look at this. It has a blue and black leather color combination that is, I don't know, it usually you see in these types of vehicles, tans and browns and things like that.
This really looks kind of nice. Dark chrome accents, open pour wood trim, headliner, create kind of a feels very upscale, but also pretty contemporary. I'm not a color person.
This looks nice though, and it looks subtle nice. It's not kind of in your face nice. It just looks good. You'll be able to put adults in all three rows is good legroom supportive seating all the way around technology, big change in technology.
Dashboards dominated by dual 14 inch display that serves both as the instrument cluster and infotainment system. The interface is pretty modern feeling responsive. It uses a kind of a touch screen but with very distinctive you push it and it kind of clicks back at you.
I like it premium upscale audio system. Last week we drove something with the Bosch with the Bose audio system. This is, I don't even know how to pronounce it. It's it's I read it off the speaker. It's K L I P S C H audio system.
Sounds good to me. And then again, you know, I'm a little tone deaf. So what do I know, but I like it. I also like the customizable ambient lighting. It just adds a little bit more personalization to the vehicle on the road.
For a big vehicle, it feels composed. It's comfortable. It is a body on frame vehicle. So you would expect it not to ride as smooth as it does. It does a really good job.
This is a full size SUV, no matter how you look at it. The suspension tuning keeps the ride quality smooth and control. I drove over some pretty poor roads this last week.
They're doing comes some construction near me, and it did a really good job. The sport trim ultimately offers a slightly different take on luxury, rather than emphasizing like opulence where I guess you would see, you know, crystal and chrome and all that stuff.
So you don't get that what you get is a kind of modern interior think, you know, maybe, I don't know, Swedish kind of interpretation of a luxury vehicle. The sport trim again, I think it does a good job.
It's not kind of in your face about it. For drivers who want a commanding presence on the road, and they want a full size luxury SUV, but prefer maybe just a slightly different look, you know, not as glass and chrome, I guess would be a good way to want it.
Kind of a sportier aesthetic without being kind of over the top. I think the QX80 sport provides a compelling and stylish alternative within that lineup right within the QX80, which there's several versions of this. I mean, it's a luxury SUV from infinity, several versions of sport kind of offers something that a little bit different that you might not get in other lineups.
So just something to think about there.
I want to go over a couple of questions that came in this week kind of had kind of had a couple interesting ones. This person has a Mazda CX-5. He says I'm 69 years old and he's written to me before about the frustration with the infotainment system.
He says I'm 69 years old, except some partial blame on my age, although my son a full time IT worker has also complained about the non-intuitive controls.
One of the most annoying problems is the clock does not automatically change with daylight savings time and to change the clock one hour. I need to remember how he did it last time.
The owner's manual has no listing in the index for either clock or time to make matters worse whenever I do change the time on the clock than a week or two it starts running about three to four minutes slow. Is this a common problem?
Well, not that I'm aware, not that I know about this three or four minutes slow. You are absolutely right. The owner's manual give you no real advice.
I looked at the online owner's manual for 2025 CX-5. Nothing in there you search when you do a keyword search for time or clock. Nothing comes up. You have to go into the infotainment system.
Then you have to go in the settings and you have to go in the clock. If it does have a GPS in it, and I don't know if yours does, then you do have the opportunity to set it to do it automatically.
So when daylight savings time changes, it will do it automatically and the GPS should also keep the clock dead accurate.
Now, I don't know if you have this and if you do, select the auto section and that should take care of it. This is one I always find a little bit hard to answer.
I'm considering buying an extended warranty for my 2021 Hyundai Palisade. It only has 18,000 miles on it.
The original five year bumper to bumper warranty expires at the end of April, except for several minor recalls.
Car has been great with no repairs or ever needed. The warranties I've been considering are eight to ten years in duration and cover up to 120,000 miles.
They're expensive, have no deductibles and can be used at any licensed repair shop. I wonder what a licensed repair shop is.
I'm most concerned about the expensive repairs, including computers, motors, transmissions, etc. In your opinion, is this practical or a total waste of money?
Well, why do I always feel awkward about this? Because we sell extended warranties at AAA.
So before we started selling them ages ago, the advice from any good consumer person was skip the extended warranty.
You don't need it. Put the money in the bank and if you use it, use it.
Well, cars weren't quite as expensive then and we started getting into the warranty business because our members were asking for it.
Now, considering this Hyundai has a drivetrain warranty engine transmission differentials for 10 years or 100,000 miles.
I don't think I would consider it. You have quite a ways to go. What you're going to pay every year for an extended warranty might be, I don't know, $1,800, maybe something like that.
Where you say the car has been a great car, the bumper to bumper warranty has expired because it's five years old now, but you still have the remainder of that 10-year, 100,000 mile drivetrain warranty.
Yes, if a computer fails, it could get expensive, things like that, but is it going to be more expensive than what you will pay for your warranty?
One of the other concerns I have is where you're buying your warranty from.
You know, there's all these companies that are advertising with superstars or race car drivers and all kinds of people that are going to try to sell your warranty.
Will they be in business in a year or two?
One thing I will say about AAA's warranty is that in the 40 plus years I've been in AAA and the 35 or so years that we've offered warranties, we've had to shop around for different warranty companies because the ones we've had have gone out of business.
Well, what we have always done is we've always supported our members if something happens.
If the warranty runs out, we stand behind it and we pay for the repairs if they're needed.
If some of these other ones might not do that, so just something to be aware of.
If you are going to shop and you might want to consider the AAA warranty if you're interested or the Hyundai warranty if they are for one, you might want to consider that.
The part about going to a licensed repair shop, licensed by who?
Licensed by the state.
There is, I mean all repair shops have to have repair licenses, but do they mean certified?
Even to that just brings up a question.
Also, if things like there's a warranty and you didn't take care of the warranty, will that be covered?
So a lot of things, if it was my 2021 Palisade with less than 20,000 miles on it and I still had the remainder of the 10-year, 100,000 mile drive train warranty, I don't think I'd do it.
Another question actually just came in.
I have a 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz Limited, I tow a 3,000 pound camper towing capacity is 5,000 pounds with a 500 pound maximum tongue weight.
My question is how strong is reverse gear?
I have a very steep driveway.
Would you attempt to back up a steep hill and will it damage the direct clutch transmission?
I don't think I would, but not for the reasons of the transmission.
My concern would be gears are made to go forward, not backwards.
And that's where the strength is.
And even though you're well under the 5,000 pound towing capacity, could you break a differential gear?
Maybe because they're designed to go forward, not backwards.
More times than not, you can break a transmission or a differential by jamming the thing in reverse and nailing the accelerator.
So if I had the option, if I was going to do it, I would try to do it as slow as possible.
But what you have to watch out for with a direct clutch transmission is you don't want the clutch to start to slip.
And think of these direct clutch transmissions as a manual transmission with a automatically applied clutch.
And if you're somebody who just breathes on the gas pedal really lightly, you can actually cause a little bit of clutch wear,
because the clutch isn't fully applying, but it's not completely released.
So would I do it occasionally?
Would I do it all the time?
No, I would try to find another way to try to do this.
I don't know how steep a hill is when they describe it as an attempt backing up a steep hill.
Probably not, but I would try to avoid it if I could.
That makes any sense at all.
And we'll do one more.
Somebody wrote to me and they said they had a new aftermarket windshield installed by a very popular windshield company.
It's a 2015 Lexus CX350.
It has the top half of the length of the VIN numbers partially obscured by the windshield.
So either the windshield isn't put in correctly or it has a tent all the way around it.
So it's not easily read.
It's even more difficult to take a picture of my iPhone to see if I could bring it its readability to it,
albeit from a different angle.
There's no noticeable issues, but my intention is to upgrade the car soon.
I want to know how much of an issue this presents, including any written state laws.
Thank you for your input in this matter.
Well, when they come out to do a vehicle identification check, a VIN check,
a lot of times they'll go right to the windshield because that's the easiest one.
You don't have to bend over.
But there's also a VIN number on the door.
There's also several hidden spots where you can find VIN numbers under the hood and places like that.
So for state inspection purposes, the VINs typically scan off the door, so there's not an issue.
Although for VIN verification, like a police department, again, they typically read the number down the windshield.
They might look at it and go, oh, this is hard to read, and they'll go over to the door placard,
and that should have it on there as well.
If it's truly unreadable, I would go back to the people that did the windshield and say, hey, look,
you put this windshield in and now I can't read it.
So there you go.
If you want to read my column, it's all over the place this week.
It's at Boston.com.
The good folks at Boston.com posted it this past Thursday evening.
So go to Boston.com, go to the cars section.
You'll find a whole listing.
If you want to read the Providence Journal column, go to projo.com.
That posted just today, and that actually posts a little bit earlier for the following Sunday.
So a post on Friday comes up on Sunday.
The program will be back to normal next Sunday.
If you're listening live at 959WATD, whether you're listening on your radio or you're listening on your smart speaker,
that's where you can always find the program.
And then the podcast of the program, which is just a, just take the full program,
puts it into this podcast that you're listening to now.
You can find it at any of your favorite podcast sites like iTunes or Spotify or any of those.
So you can find Car Doctor Radio podcasts there.
So until the next time you listen, if you do see an emergency vehicle by the side of the road,
slow it out or move over.
It saves lives.
And of course, where you see Belle drive safely and be good to your car.
We'll talk to y'all next time.
Bye-bye.
About this episode
The discussion centers on the 2026 Infiniti QX80 Sport, highlighting its shift from a V8 to a powerful twin-turbo V6 engine, aggressive styling, and luxurious yet modern interior with advanced tech features like dual 14-inch displays and premium audio. The host praises its smooth ride despite being body-on-frame and notes the sport trim’s unique aesthetic appeal. Additionally, the episode addresses listener questions about infotainment system quirks in the Mazda CX-5, the practicality of extended warranties for a Hyundai Palisade, and concerns about towing and transmission durability in a Hyundai Santa Cruz.
A bit of a change we were happy to step aside on the live Sunday program due to a local hockey team going to the playoffs at the Boston Garden. So we answered a few questions and did a first tun of a review of the luxurious Infiniti QX80 Sport.
