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The business of auto body shops and a review of the Genesis G80
The business of auto body shops and a review of the Genesis G80
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About this episode
Mark Benlock from Auto Shine Auto Body joins John Paul to discuss the evolving landscape of auto body shops, highlighting advancements in technology and the importance of quality control. They delve into the challenges of finding skilled technicians and the significance of customer satisfaction. The conversation also touches on the Genesis G80, a luxury vehicle that competes with high-end brands like BMW and Mercedes, emphasizing its features, performance, and value. Listeners gain insights into both the auto body industry and a detailed review of a standout luxury sedan.
Topics:
auto body industry
technology advancements
quality control
Genesis G80 review
luxury vehicles
customer satisfaction
skilled technicians
collision repairs
paintless dent removal
insurance challenges
Cars:
BMW 5 Series
Chevrolet Trax
Ford Explorer
Genesis G80
Honda Odyssey
Honda Passport
Hyundai Genesis
Kia Sorento
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Porsche 959
In this episode we talk with Mark Bendlock of AAA Approved Auto Shine Auto Body We also review the very nice Genesis G80 and give away a AAA membership to a lucky listener from NH
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Porsche 959
"And welcome back to the car doctor program. And 959 WATD. We'll do a car review, and then we'll get t..."
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Genesis G80
"...s the phone number. And the review is the Genesis G80. It's one of those cars that it's pretty easy"
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Mercedes-Benz Eclass
"It's one of those cars that it's pretty easy to compare to something like a Mercedes E-Class or a BMW 5-series."
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Bmw 5Series
"to compare to something like a Mercedes E-Class or a BMW 5-series. It is the luxury division of Hyundai."
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Hyundai Genesis
"...At one time, there was a model called the Hyundai Genesis, but Genesis spun off in its own."
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Honda Odyssey
"buying friend who just bought a V6 Honda Odyssey and another acquaintance who just traded in a V6 ..."
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Honda Passport
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Kia Sorento
"... you ever encountered a problem with the 2025 Kia Sorento plug-in hybrid vehicle"
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Ford Explorer
"...t new cars make some weird noises I was in a Ford Explorer which is a very nice vehicle"
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WATD presents John Paul, The Car Doctor, All Things Automotive.
Have questions?
Call or text 7-8-1-837-4900.
Now, here's John Paul, The Car Doctor.
Good Sunday morning everyone and welcome to another edition of the Car Doctor program
on 959WATD.
My name's John Paul, The Car Doctor.
I hope you with your car problems on this Sunday morning and maybe you're listening online,
maybe you're listening a year from now on a podcast.
Either way, you can get ahold of me by email if you want.
JayPaul at AAAnortheast.com or call the program.
Today, we're talking auto body and we're talking auto body with Mark Benlock.
He is one of the partners in Auto Shine Auto Body, a AAA approved auto body shop in Abington,
Braintree and I believe they have a location in Pembroke.
Mark, good morning and welcome to the Car Doctor program.
Good morning John, thank you for having me.
Yeah, well tell us about Auto Shine Auto Body.
I lived in Abington for more than half my life and I think I drove by it 52,000 times.
At least, right?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, Auto Shine Auto Body was established back in 1999 and I've always had an interest in the appearance of automobile.
That's what got me started in the business.
One shop led to three and here we got 25 years later, we have a location actually on Copeland Street in Quincy,
Pond Street in Braintree and Route 18 which is also called Bedford Street in Abington.
So I made up the Pembroke location, sorry about that.
Well, that's where our office is located John.
Oh, okay.
The auto body business has changed a bit since you first started in it.
Oh, absolutely John.
Let's talk about the technology a little bit as well as even like the paint and products you guys have to use today.
Completely different than I remember when I was a teenager painting a car outside between two buildings
and the end result wasn't horrible but it's completely different these days, right?
But again, I'm sure there is somebody still doing that out there somewhere John.
But yeah, the technology is five different fossil peria.
Back in the 80s or even prior to that, a lot of these small body shops are like little mom and pop operations.
You know, the owner was the office manager.
He was the painter.
He was the body man.
You know, he did it all.
He might have had one guy or one person helping them but now it's much more corporate now.
So, you know.
Yeah.
And it really, as much as the work has changed, it's still finding just the right people to do the work, right?
Oh, absolutely.
That's always our biggest issue.
But back to the technology that you mentioned in the industry, it's like light years ahead of what it used to be.
The cars are much more advanced, much more sophisticated, a lot more onboard computers that you have to deal with.
So, yeah, I mean, you know, most of our guys are all ICAS certified so they're all go-class standard certified technicians,
which is like the highest in the industry.
And so, you know, they're concentrating access to the best equipment, you know, and so it's just one thing after another, you know.
And it is, you know, it is real important to, like you said, your folks take real pride in putting the car back together right.
You know, sometimes it's, you know, I've seen some body work and the body work itself looks okay.
But all of a sudden, you know, the car starts to have problems.
A wiring harness got crimped putting something back together and that's caused kind of a chain reaction of problems to happen.
So it is important to make sure that you've, you know, gone to school and you've learned the lessons that need to be learned
and, you know, repairs that need to be done.
And I'm sure today working with insurance adjusters can be a bit of a challenge too.
Well, I mean, yes or no. I mean, dealing with them, I mean, it keeps everybody, I think, honest, you know, because it's just another set of eyes on the job itself, on the repair.
And what we like to do at Autoshine Auto Body, we have quite a quality control system that, before any vehicle leaves any of our shops,
it gets inspected by our shop foreman and one of the appraisers or possibly the office manager.
So that's like my thing. That's my big thing. You know, nothing leaves you unless it's absolutely perfect.
Well, and, you know, that's a good point.
Your job is to make your customers happy and to make the car happy, I guess, too.
You want to put out a product that is as good or better than what the factory put out.
I mean, that's our goal, John, absolutely. And, you know, we have a lot, a lot of repeat business.
We have families that have been with us for 20 years. And, you know, it's only as good as your last job.
So, you know, that just keeps them coming back and, you know, we do a lot of work for a lot of insurance companies.
And it's just been a good ride. It's been fun.
Yeah. And how about, do you also do work for car dealers that don't have body shops?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That's kind of how we started out, John. You know, we actually had five mobile vans that we set up as mobile body shops
and we would go to location or location to the actual repair work on site at their location.
And then the opportunity came up to buy, you know, a brick and mortar location in Quincy.
That was our first one. And we made the shift from mobile to, you know, brick and mortar and, you know, the rest is history from there.
So was the mobile a lot of things like repairing bumper covers and stuff like that?
Exactly. Small stuff. Like if just say you went in to say Toyota to buy a new car and you were going to come back the following day to pick it up
and in the meantime, somebody hit that car and did a little bit of a damage to it and now they'll call me up.
I'll send the guy out there and we'll do the repair right on site.
So a lot of that goes on. A lot of cars come in damage too.
Yeah, people don't realize that. I remember I was looking at, you know, in part of my lifetime with AAA, I was a kind of a consumer advocate,
sort of, you know, kind of lemon law sort of thing. And I remember looking at a Lexus and following the history back of, you know,
the car was damaged at damage during assembly. So they had a paint part of it kind of off site.
Well, it's still the interior in it, so they couldn't bake it quite the way it was supposed to.
Then when they were delivering it, chain fell off the transport truck landed on the landed on the trunk,
scratched up the trunk, so it got painted again. And then the person, you know, was the whole time was going,
I think there's something wrong with the car because they didn't like, none of the paint matched.
Oh, yeah.
And you just kind of look at that and go, well, you know, yeah, you know, these new cars aren't always as pristine as you kind of hope they would be.
No, and you'd be surprised how often that goes on. It's kind of funny that you mentioned that.
That's how I actually got into the auto body business. I had a detail company back in the mid to late 80s.
And like I said, I've been always interested in the appearance of, you know, of the exterior mostly, you know, the interior as well.
And so what we would do is we did a lot of work for car dealers.
So I was like one of the, you know, second or third guy that got the opportunity to look at this vehicle when it came off the car carrier.
And I mean, that was very common to see something that just didn't look like it just rolled off the assembly line.
You know, something was damaged somewhere.
Yeah.
Very common. Very common.
Yeah.
And are you guys still doing paintless dent removal?
Oh yeah. Yeah, PDA. That's quite a demand for that.
We have a guy that's actually, I call him the magician. He's just amazing, you know.
A lot of people, I mean, I'd say most people, if you can prevent painting a car, then that is the way to go.
But, you know, it's not always possible to remove a ding or a dent and not know that it was there prior to the paintless dent removal guy doing it.
Yeah, I have, you know, we have a little tin shack in Florida that we go to in the wintertime and we took our car down there and it had, it was, it was, it sat through Hurricane Ian and of course stuff was blowing around at 150 miles an hour.
Oh yeah.
And it got a fair amount of body damage and of course all the local body shops were closed because all their roofs blew off.
So I ended up going to a paintless dent removal guy a couple towns away and I sent him some pictures ahead of time and I wasn't sure because it was a, it looked like someone took a baseball bat to the front fender right on a crease.
And I'm like, I don't know if they're going to be able to get this out.
And, you know, the guy came out and looked at it and he said, yeah, he said, I'm pretty sure I can take care of all of this.
Wow.
And it was expensive.
Yeah.
But on the other hand, it was faster than going to a body shop and it was, and, you know, it still has the original paint, which was kind of nice.
Yeah.
And they managed to, they managed to take out all the, you know, take out the dents I was worried about and, and I buffed out the scratches and you know, the car looked like it didn't go through a hurricane.
So, you know, the idea that you guys can do that as well as, you know, like you said, you got the magician that can, that can take a lot of these dents out.
Yeah.
You know, that just compliments your service.
So it sounds like, it sounds like you're, you know, you're doing standard bodywork.
You're doing collision bodywork and paintless dent removal.
So it sounds like you're pretty much doing everything.
What does the car look like?
You said, you know, the thing that you require the most is someone goes over the car before it gets handed back to the customer.
Does it, when you're done, does it look like it's gone through a detail shop?
Well, it does because it does get detailed before it leaves one of our locations.
That's one of our policies that we do.
And any car that comes in for a collision repick, the car gets detailed inside and out for no additional cost.
So what that does, the customer comes in to pick up their car.
They kind of forget about the reason why it's there because the car is so clean.
It hasn't been clean like that since the day they bought it.
Well, it's just a case in their mouth, you know.
Yeah, and that's absolutely something to brag about because, you know, I've been around this business for a long time
and I remember picking up cars at body shops that were coming back to maybe where I worked to do repairs.
And, you know, and, you know, the cars, cars covered with dust and, you know, it's, you know, and it, you know, it doesn't look,
it doesn't look like the way you would want to pick up a car that a customer would want to pick up a car.
And just the idea, just the idea that you guys are, you know, detailing the cars, you're giving a car back,
making it look as good as it could possibly look, I think really tells a lot about how you guys care about your business.
Well, it's like, I always like to, you know, give somebody a little extra something and, you know, more than what they're paying for.
And then, you know, like I said, it kind of forgets, they forget why the car was actually there and they pick it up.
So it's just a win-win for everybody, you know.
Yeah, no, it absolutely makes sense.
And you guys, go ahead, no, go ahead.
I'm sorry, yeah. So we, as far as I know, like I said, I've been doing this a long time.
We were one of the first body, auto body companies, Auto Shine Auto Body, Copeland Street Auto Body, to provide this service to our customers.
I mean, because of course it costs money and the insurance company doesn't pay for that to get the car detailed.
You know, they might pay, you know, pay us to wash it, but that's it.
You know, they don't pay to vacuum it, they don't pay to shampoo the car bus to compound and buff the paint, wax the car.
So we take, that's our cause, that's all I'm not saying, that's all part of doing business, John.
Well, and it sounds like, you know, that really is, you know, something, you know, you've been in this business for a long time.
And that's why you've been in this business for a long time, because you give people a little bit more than they were looking for.
And I was looking, I just was looking at your Facebook page and you guys, you guys do some like charity stuff too, right?
You guys work with veterans and...
We do a lot of charity work, yeah.
Our office manager, our controller, Maria, she's actually a partner as well.
She takes a lot of pride in doing that.
And like all the local towns that we do business with, you know, the Fourth of July parade and Braintree,
for whatever, you know, some school system in Pembroke or Abington, yeah, we're involved.
We donate a lot of money to the police departments and the fire departments.
You know, the way I look at it, John, one hand washes with the other, you know, so...
Yeah, no, it makes sense to do it, it makes sense.
You know, you were talking about, you know, the technology and computers and, you know, all these cars now have, you know, advanced driver assistance systems.
And you've got to make sure all that stuff is put back and recalibrated.
Yeah, oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, so obviously I'm glad you mentioned that word recalibration.
So we obviously have computers that do that.
You'll hook it up to the car after you're done doing that repair.
And that'll tell you if there's anything not right and then you can correct it, you know, whatever needs to be corrected.
So, but we, you know, that's kind of our quality control.
We actually have a quality control checklist.
So the guy or the girl will go through the car and make sure even just like the blinkers work, the horn works, you know, everything's still functioning the way it should.
So there's no surprises, you know.
Yeah, I mean, you're right.
I mean, there's nothing worse than, you know, you know, getting your car back and, oh, you know, the check engine lights and there's, you know, there's no, there's no, you know, no stations on the radio anymore.
And it's like, well, yeah, that had nothing to do with us.
That was.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
No, it kind of did.
You know, so.
Yeah.
So the idea that that you guys are, again, you guys are doing that and you guys are, you guys are doing it the right way.
And that's, that's important.
Is there any car?
Is there any cars you won't work on?
Is there something you go, you know what?
You honestly know, John, because I mean, Tesla can be difficult, but people tend to stay away from them just because of that.
Yeah.
Because you need additional training to work on a Tesla.
You need to be certified.
Right.
And the shop needs to be certified.
So, you know, a lot of people like to stick with what they know, but I mean, we're always up for a challenge.
You know, we probably repair about, you know, between 60 and 80 cars on a weekly basis.
So, you know, between the three shops.
So, you know, we're doing a lot of volume.
And I would guess that was the same when Ford decided to go with aluminum and all that sort of stuff in their, in their trucks.
You guys had to get, you guys had to train on how to do that stuff, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You had to be certified for that as well.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And, you know, it's just, you know, part of doing business.
That's all it is.
You know, you got to be willing to make adjustments and changes and go with the flow, so to speak, you know.
One of the older guys in the business don't like all these, you know, regulations and certifications that you need.
And that's another reason why a lot of them are getting out of the business.
Yeah.
Speaking of which, have you, do you deal with any of the local Votek schools like South Shore Votek or anything to get some of the body shop students over to your place?
Yeah, you know, we've been down that route, John.
And, you know, we've had some like in the past, but to be totally honest with you, not so much like a lot of people, a lot of the younger guys just aren't going to school for auto body.
Yeah.
You know, they're more interested in the electronics of a vehicle.
You know, maybe they'll go to school for auto repair, but not so much auto body.
Yeah.
So, fancy a question though.
We really haven't had much luck with that, but we've made a few attempts at that, you know.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
Do you ever see a point where you'll have to have kind of the computer specialist and that's all they do is, you know, recalibrate stuff and reprogram stuff?
Oh, yeah.
And they don't do body work?
Well, we get, actually, we have the best of both worlds.
We have a guy or two guys at each shop that do all the calibrating and body work.
Oh, all right.
So, yeah, yeah, it kind of wears a couple different hats, you know.
So, and it just, it works.
It really does, you know.
No, no, it makes sense.
Yeah.
Well, give us, give us the locations again one more time so people know where they are, where you are.
All right.
So, let's start in Quincy.
That was our first body shop.
It's 65 Copeland Street in Quincy.
And then we have 531 Pond Street in Braintree, which is right outside of Five Corners.
Yep.
And then we have 310 Bedford Street, also known as Route 18 in Abington, a couple doors down from Lowe's.
And that shop's been there since the 70s.
I know.
Like I said, that shop's been there for a long time.
And I, you know, on my way to the Cape Cod Lumber or Lowe's or, you know, the restaurant down the street, you know,
whether it was, you know, any of the places there, I always go by.
I always kind of said, you know, I just kind of want to stop in and chat, but I always didn't want any real reason to stop in.
Like, you know, I ran into something.
I can't say I blame you, John.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a very busy street, and you know, you're driving by, you know, 50 miles an hour and everybody's distracted.
So you'd be surprised how many people drive by that just don't notice the building.
Yeah.
But we have a very, very nice sign out front.
They usually notice that for us.
Yeah.
No, it is, it is a, I think, I think you have, you know, you have a good, solid business.
It sounds like you have a great reputation.
And I want to, you know, thank you for advertising at WATD.
No, I want to thank you for having me on, John.
Appreciate it.
Mark, enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Hopefully there's, I don't know, some football and sitting on the couch.
Yeah, hopefully we'll have something to cheer about later, John.
There you go.
All right.
Thanks, Mark.
Thank you, John.
All right.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
That was Mark Bedlock.
He is one of the partners in Autoshine Auto Body.
It seems like a great place, and I know I've driven by it a million times, the one in Abington.
You know, it sounds like if, and they are AAA approved.
AAA doesn't approve very many body shops, but there are a few.
And my recommendation is if you have, need to get some body work done and, you know,
your insurance company, you know, maybe is trying to steer you one place to the other,
you know, go talk, go talk to the people at Autoshine Auto Body.
Sounds like, sounds like the right thing to do.
Why don't we take a break, pay some bills when we come back.
I'm going to talk about certified pre-owned cars because someone, someone commented about
a question I answered in one of the newspapers today, whether I was telling people, be a
little bit careful with those certified pre-owned.
If you want to join us, our phone number 781837 4900, 781837 4900.
Phone lines are open.
Give us a call.
We'll be right back.
You'll listen to the car doctor program on 959WATD.
We'll be right back.
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That's aaa.com slash join.
Well, Nick, there's a pretty good resume here.
Have you always been this responsible?
When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible.
Well, like how?
You know that story, the giving tree?
Oh, come boy, swing on my branches.
Eat my apples.
Be happy.
That's it.
One day I was driving my pickup truck, saw an apple tree.
I climbed up, swung on our branches, ate her apple.
The branch broke, cracked my windshield.
The giving tree?
I'm Peter Brown from Tiny and Sons Glass.
We come to your work, your home, or your story time.
We replace your windshield and insurance pays.
1-888-64-TINIES.
Just call.
And thank you.
How was the apple?
It wasn't worth the trouble, really.
Live at 5 every Sunday night.
Have a question for our host, Miss Last Week Show,
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you can find us on Twitter, at Essie, on WATD.
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and we'll see you Sunday night at 5
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for John Paul, the car doctor, on 959 WATD.
Now, back to the car doctor.
And welcome back to the car doctor program.
And 959 WATD.
We'll do a car review, and then we'll get to our calls.
If you want to join us and get in line,
7-8-1-8-3-7-4-9-100 is the phone number.
And the review is the Genesis G80.
It's one of those cars that it's pretty easy
to compare to something like a Mercedes E-Class
or a BMW 5-series.
It is the luxury division of Hyundai.
At one time, there was a model called the Hyundai Genesis,
but Genesis spun off in its own.
And really, they did a really nice job.
I went out to dinner the other night with a neighbor,
a local place, and the guy who owns a place,
a younger guy, he's a car nut.
He's got, I don't know, a bunch of Volkswagen's
and other stuff squirreled away here and there, a Volvo.
But he also had a Genesis, and he spotted this
as soon as I pulled into the parking lot.
I don't know how we saw it. I don't know where it was.
But he said, I saw that car. It's beautiful.
But it's engineered to offer really a really sophisticated
feel and look.
You could easily compare it to more expensive cars
like BMW and Mercedes.
It has a starting price of $57,000.
It comes pretty well equipped.
Ours has the bigger engine in it.
Ours had the turbocharged V6 engine.
Makes all kinds of horsepower.
The interior of the cabin is a highlight.
It's pointed with really high quality materials,
quilted leather, open pour wood, metal accents that,
you know, really, I think look as good as any
Mercedes or BMW.
There's a 27-inch OLED display
that consolidates the instrument cluster
in the infotainment system.
It's this wide kind of expanse across a dash.
They did a really nice job with it.
It has, like, real-look engages, too,
which is really kind of nice.
Comfort is a priority. You know, heated seats,
ventilated seats, massaging seats.
You can get all that stuff. Heated rear seats.
Pretty good, pretty good head and leg room in the back.
It does have that kind of Cooper-style roof.
So, you know, if you're really,
if you're tall from the waist up,
the back seat might be a little bit of a challenge.
Short, I guess, is the trunk isn't as big
as some of the others.
About 13 cubic feet, so a little smaller
than, you know, some of the other luxury cars.
It has adaptive suspension, available all-wheel drive.
It provides just a good driving experience.
I think it's a little more composed
than some of the others where, you know,
Mercedes feels busy sometimes
when you're driving down the road.
There's a lot of stuff going on.
Like I said, we have the car with the 375 horsepower,
3.5-liter twin-turbo V6,
and an 8-speed automatic transmission.
Again, standard all-wheel drive.
5 seconds from 0 to 60.
Maybe a little bit slower than some
of the European competitors.
Maybe a little bit faster.
But 0 to 65 seconds fast.
So, fuel economy, eh, it could be better.
You know, but, you know, 27, 28 miles per gallon.
Safety and technology, I think, you know,
has everything in it.
You know, lane departure, warning, steering,
all that heads-up display.
Just kind of comes with the package.
So full advanced driver assistance system,
really high-quality, high-end audio system in this one.
I think it offers a really good value,
and, you know, it undercuts some of its rivals.
And probably the other thing is,
it's got a 10-year, 100,000-mile drivetrain warranty.
You know, and that really can make a real difference
as some of these European competitors get older.
They can start to get expensive,
and they can start to have some engine
and drivetrain problems.
10-year, 100,000-mile warranty, pretty good.
So, probably the best.
Conclusion?
I don't know.
I think they deliver a luxurious, comfortable,
well-equipped experience.
Not just a car.
It's a whole little experience going on.
If you, you know, look for interior luxury
and technology, and you don't care so much
about having a German nameplate.
You know, the Genesis G80 warrants a serious test drive.
Take a look at it.
I think you'll be real happy with it.
They're really, they're really nice cars.
They did a really good job.
I remember talking to somebody
who traded their Maserati for a Genesis,
and they couldn't be happier.
So, there you go.
Genesis G80.
That's it for this week.
Let's talk too.
Where are we going?
My memory's gone.
Where are we going?
Thomas Kingston.
Thomas Kingston.
Tom?
Tom, you still there?
Ah, here I am.
There you are.
We weren't sure for a minute.
Neither was I.
Hey, that was a good interview.
Yeah, you know, it's a body shop
that's been there for a long time.
I feel bad when I lived there.
I never actually stopped in to see him.
But, you know, I'm happy there,
an advertiser.
I'm happy that AAA approved.
Yeah.
One thing they didn't talk about,
what they used to call a frame.
Remember when cars used to have frames?
I did.
They had to bring it to a shop
that was straightened out to a frame.
And there were some shops that were,
there were some shops that's all they did
was frame straightening.
Yeah.
So, the body shop would send it over to
a frame shop, and they would straighten it out.
And then, you know,
then others weren't quite as sophisticated.
They had basically holes in their floor
that they would put cement pots with
hooks on them and yank and stretch
and try to get them correct.
But now they're all using lasers
to line everything up.
And I chuckled when he said one word
about back memories.
He goes, the blinka.
The blinka!
Yeah, you can make sure the blinkas work.
Well, it's funny, I picked up,
I picked up a car for somebody
that just came out of the body shop
and the blinka bulb
was dangling under the bumper.
I'm like, come on, guys, you know,
you couldn't pop this back in before you gave it back
and it was supposed to be all done?
And it wasn't.
And the idea that they,
you know, really recondition the car
before you get it back,
they detail the car before you get it back,
I think says a lot.
I had, I met somebody else
who did that, I had some body work done.
When I first got the car
that we still have now,
it probably only had less than a thousand miles on it
and someone hit the back bumper
and, you know, if the car was four years old,
I probably wouldn't have cared about it
but the car was so new
and I wanted to bring it someplace
and I brought it to a body shop
that I knew of and
when I got it back it was completely detailed
and I asked them about that
and they said, oh yeah, we pride ourselves on that.
So the same thing AutoShine and AutoBody does,
you know, the idea that they pride themselves
on giving it back better than you gave it to them.
Yes, nice.
Yeah.
And with this comment, I watched the news the other day
which I try not to too often in today's world.
Yeah.
And they had a...
You and me both.
Yeah, a young lady was in the car accident
locally around here
and she hit a telephone pole
and they don't move too well.
Not much.
And right smack in the middle
and the reason why she had it,
she was on her cell phone
looking at the screen on her phone.
Yeah.
And the damage is done.
I mean, the cars are total.
Oh, yeah.
But smack in the middle.
Yeah.
Smack in the middle.
Yeah.
The left and the right.
Yeah.
Unbelievable.
No, and the good thing is
it did crumple up because, you know,
people talk about, you know,
drove a 57 Chevy into that same telephone pole.
Mm-hmm.
Well, it might break the pole,
but, you know, they didn't bend the same way
and they had, you know, they had, you know,
solid steering shafts and, you know,
metal dashboards and only lap belts
and, you know, the sun visors were,
you know, would cut your head off,
you know, so today the cars are designed
to crush up, they're called crumple zones
and they're designed for the passenger
to ride down the collision.
You know, so hopefully, you know,
she wasn't too badly hurt.
Yes, and stay up those phones.
Exactly.
Hey, listen, I'll talk to you in the fall.
All right.
Which is next week, I think.
Or tomorrow.
Or something like that.
Yeah.
Something like that.
All right.
Always good to hear from you.
Bye-bye.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Our phone number again is
781-837-4900.
And someone wrote to me and said,
having a friend buying, having a Toyota
buying friend who just bought a V6 Honda
Odyssey and another acquaintance who
just traded in a V6 forerunner
for a V6 Honda passport.
I understand the want of the person
who was trying to buy a certified
used Lexus with a V6,
but I'm wondering was your answer
a backhanded way of wanting the public
that certified cars are not always
well inspected by the dealer
telling them.
Kind of, I guess.
There's manufacturer certified
and dealer certified.
And both can be referred to as
certified pre-owned.
Both can be good.
Absolutely.
A few years back, I remember I was
going car shopping for a one-year-old.
It was before I bought the car
that we have now.
For a one-year-old SUV,
it was labeled as certified pre-owned.
And the left front tire was brand new.
And the car had about 20,000 miles
and they said, well, it's got the remainder
of the warranty and this and that.
It's been through the 199,000
safety check, point safety check.
And I'm like, yeah,
it's got the, look at that.
It's got a brand new tire on it.
I'm like, yeah, it should have
four brand new tires on it.
Or at least two brand new tires on it.
It shouldn't have one.
And I don't know if it came
that way, like the previous owner
hit a curb and blew out a tire or whatever.
But the idea that
that tire was
really brand new
and the other tires were about half worn,
that's something that can cause
issues with the transfer case.
That can cause the transmission to be damaged.
So, you know,
if they missed that,
what else did they miss?
And I remember going up to
a Porsche dealer
because a friend of mine worked up there
and their dealer
certified cars.
So not Porsche certified,
but their own certified cars.
They would get
four new tires, new brakes and a new battery
automatically.
And
the reason was
and this was, and if you've
been around for a while,
there was a place in Whitman called Auto Lines.
And they eventually went out of business
because, you know, when
new car dealers were selling new cars
at 0% interest, it made selling
a one-year-old car
that didn't have 0% interest,
a little bit harder to do.
But they did the same thing.
They would put new tires, new brakes and new batteries
in the car because they felt
that doing those repairs would make
a used car feel new.
You'd get a little bit more
for it and
the customer would have less chance of a problem.
So, you know, brand new brakes,
brand new battery that wasn't going to go
dead in a year
and new tires
which always makes the car feel brand new.
So, you know,
yeah, there can be a difference.
And as an example, I mean,
Acura,
they add a two-year unlimited
mileage warranty after the
four-year, 50,000 mile
basic warranty expires.
Hyundai and Kia certified
pre-owned are probably the
lengthiest available.
You know, they have the 10-year,
100,000 mile plus, you know,
the bumper-to-bumper used car warranty.
So, their certified pre-owned
pretty good. Ford certified
pre-owned is
is
12 months or 12,000 miles
whichever comes first
from the expiration of the new vehicle
bumper-to-bumper and limited warranty or the
date of your certified
pre-owned purchase whichever comes later.
So, yes, there is a
little bit of buyer-beware.
You know, you should ask.
You know, ask the car dealer.
Is it dealer certified or is it
manufacturer certified? There can be
a difference in what you get for warranty.
Then ask about the warranty itself.
Who administers the warranty?
Do you have to go to
back to the dealer where you bought it,
which might not be convenient because
you found a good deal in,
I don't know, Swamp Scott or
something and decided I'm going to go
up there and buy a car and then
oh, I got to go all the way back there because
the dealer is the only one who can work on it.
Or did I just buy
a Toyota from a dealer
150 miles away but because
it's a Toyota certified
pre-owned, I can go to any Toyota deal
and get it repaired. So, you know, ask
some questions and make sure you
have those answers before
you buy the car.
Someone, someone
wrote to me and said, they just
bought a used,
no, a new Chevy
Trax.
And as they were doing the paperwork
and, you know, giving them
a check, I guess, they realized
the car had a three cylinder engine
and they were shocked by the idea that it had
a 1.2 liter three cylinder engine
and they were like, how is this
going to hold up?
So, you know, ask your questions
ahead of time before you give them a check.
The best thing to do.
Someone else said to me, you've
answered this question before but
I probably
mowed my lawn for the last time this season
and
what do we do with the five gallons of gas that I have
for my lawn mower that I'm not going to use?
You know, it's probably
going to go bad before I use
it my snowblower.
A couple, couple things about
that. First off
it probably will
unless you put
fuel stabilizer in it and also
I would
not use the same gasoline you used
in your lawn mower for your snowblower
because
gasoline, summer gasoline
is different than winter gasoline.
Winter gasoline is designed to start
in lower temperatures.
Summer gasoline is designed not to evaporate
as fast. You know, you remember the old cars
you see all the fumes coming off the gas tank
you don't see that anymore
because gas is
sealed in the system but still
gasoline is designed not to evaporate.
So, you don't want to
save that gas and go, hey I put
fuel stabilizer and I'll use it when winter comes around
because you might find that when you go
to pour it in your snowblower
it takes forever to get it started
maybe you have an electric start and your snowblower makes
it easier but still
you might say
you might say, well
let's not use this gas, what do I do with it?
Well, depending on how old it is
even if it's older than you think
it is just put it in your car
a little bit at a time. You know, pour
you know, you have
a 12 gallon gas tank
15 gallon gas tank in your car
you're down to where you're going to put
9 or 10 gallons into the tank
dump a gallon of this in there
fill up with
fresh gas, it'll dilute it all
you'll burn it, you'll never know
and do that until your 5 gallons is gone
and you'll be fine. That's what you should do
that's the easiest thing to do
I was just reading about a gas station
off of one of the
routes going down south
I think it was a quick trip station
and
they inadvertently
got a delivery of diesel
that mixed with the regular gas
and
apparently the company's going to
take care of it, they're going to make sure that it's all
all good but
still
the idea that
that still happens to this day
someone said, someone in the article
is reading said they looked
and
found out that
there was also water in the gas
I'm not so sure about that
but the idea that there could have been
diesel mixed with gasoline
it happens periodically
not that often but it happens
periodically, every once in a while
I get a call from somebody and say, I think I got a bad tank of gas
from the local gas station
well
you're not the only one that happened
if it was a bad tank of gas
it affected more than just you
if your car is running poorly
because you think it was bad gas
there was a whole bunch of other people that got
bad gas at the same time
I don't, you know, I don't know how many
people watch, you know, Motor Trend
the Motor Trend channel on YouTube
but this week
was
their kind of
drag and drive event
which means you go from drag strip
to drag strip and
for the first
three or four days
I think it was all week
Brian Lones who was on our program a few weeks ago
was
and David Freiberger
were doing the announcing for it
and I like
those events and I actually
it was live
it was being broadcast live
but I like watching it a little bit later
because sometimes what happens is
you know, there was
probably one of the worst things
that could happen at a drag strip
the rear window blew out of a car
going down the
drag strip which meant there was broken
glass all over the drag strip
probably took an hour or so
to clean that up, get all the glass
off the drag strip before it becomes
embedded in the, you know, hot
asphalt
so that can, you know
I don't want to sit there and watch that for an hour
so I like the idea
of being fast forward through it
Brian Lones is
a character
he is
just the way he talks about the cars
and has depth of knowledge about
some of these drivers who are not
famous by any means
but they're sort of famous in that circuit
and David Freiberger, I would like to get David Freiberger
on our program one of these days
maybe him and Brian
can chat together
and maybe I can get him on the program
you know, some of these YouTubers
are pretty interesting people
and Freiberger's been
around, he was
editor of Hot Rod magazine and all that sort of stuff
so pretty interesting guy
to talk with and talk about
why don't we take another break, pay some bills
my name is John Paul, this is the CarDoc program
and when we come back
why don't we give away a AAA membership
we haven't done that in ages
why don't we do that when we come back
you'll listen to the CarDoc program on 959WATD
and we'll be right back
even car geeks and do-it-yourselfers
rely on AAA to give them extra
peace of mind on the road
AAA offers 24-7 roadside assistance
whether you're in your own vehicle, a friend's car
or even a rental
combine that with great rates of insurance
hotel, gas and buying savings
and discounts on 8700 brands
and you're covered on and off the road
get a special membership
offered today at AAA.com
slash join
AAA.com
slash join
Hi there, it's Paul Cabillian from
Cabillian's Car Care
at 104 Matakisa Street in Pembroke
Vacation season is here
and the time to take care of your car is now
before those road trips
Cabillian's is always here to make sure you're road ready
to schedule an appointment call
781-834-6558
Find us at
104 Matakisa Street in Pembroke
or find us online at
thanks a million Mr. Cabillian
Oh no, someone ran a shopping cart in my car
when I left it unattended
auto shine auto body, you bend it, they mend it
my kid didn't see that giant telephone pole when he opened the door
now look at it, how splendid
auto shine auto body, you bend it, they mend it
the chuckle head behind me was texting and driving
and now I'm re-rended
auto shine auto body, you bend it, they mend it
I don't even know how this happened
but look, my bumper is dented
auto shine auto body, you bend it, they mend it
your buddy just had a great experience fixing his car
who was that he recommended?
auto shine auto body, you bend it, they mend it
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whether you're using your insurance company or paying out of pocket
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auto shine auto body, you bend it, they mend it
step into the light
Hi, I'm Dan Chauvin
step into the light and tune into
Twilight Showcase Radio
hosted by Sandy Stride and Keith James
on 959 WATD
and 959 WATD
dot com
search for Twilight Showcase on Facebook
and visit twilightshowcase.org
Twilight Showcase
tonight from
8 to 10 on 959
WATD
make an appointment Sunday morning at 11
for John Paul the car doctor
on 959 WATD
now back to the car
doctor
and welcome back
to the car doctor program on 959 WATD
I think
we'll
give away a triple A membership how's that
and here's the deal
Jesse's kind of half in charge here
well he's fully in charge because
you know he can take me off the air
anytime he wants
but the rules are
you need an email address because
we're going to do this all by email
you can't
be a current triple A member so this is
for new members only
so if you don't have a triple A membership and you're like
you know I'd kind of like to get
a triple A membership
we can hook you up and there's all kinds of reasons
to get a triple A membership
including being able to go to a triple A
office and get your license renewed
and not having to go to the registry
and also things like
you know
we're starting to do real
we're starting to do not just real ID
because we've always done that but we're starting to do the
why can't I think of it
the thing where you don't have to wait in line at the airport
what's that called Jesse
you don't have to wait in line at the airport
there's a few of them there's like the TSA
pre-check that's one
well there's pre-check but there's also like the international
entry
the great thing is like a lot of people don't know about it
so if you get it done
that line is always
a lot shorter
which if you've ever gone international
you know how much of a pain sitting in customs is
anyways we got our winner
it's me
well too bad
employees of
WATD can't win
oh that's terrible
I know so what do you think
should we do like the
959th caller
I don't know if we have time for that
so maybe we just do the 5th caller
5th caller okay
so no quiz
no anything this is all you have to do
be the 5th caller
that wants a AAA membership
who doesn't have one now
I need your name, address, probably a phone number
just in case and email
so name, address, phone number, email
and
to Jesse, MI number 5
and
you will get a
special code
that you can use to get a AAA membership
how's that
there you go
so I'll let Jesse do what he does
and I'll go back to
some of the questions that came in this week
because they do come in
sometimes they come in after the fact
sometimes they come in before
and this week
before you hop into that we'll just give out the phone number
one more time for those listening
that would be 7-8-1-837-4900
so call in at 7-8-1-837-4900
and say
MI number 5
and you will win a AAA membership
there you go
that easy
not hard to do
somebody said to me
I recommended something called
Bar Keeper's Friend
or Bon Ami Cleaner
really dirty windshield
found that
glass top
stove range cleaner gets windshield
really clean too
thanks for the tip
good idea
kind of product in the
mail from a company called
CPS
and oh CPR
I'm sorry
they have a variety of products
I thought they were sending me a bottle of stuff
that was supposed to be good for leather interiors
and
they sent me a bunch of stuff and one of them was
a glass cleaner
and I'm a big
fan of Sprayway
and Stoner Invisible
Glass
I think they both do a really good job
Sprayway is about half the price
so you can get like a two pack of Sprayway cleaner
for about what it costs for one can
of invisible glass but they both work really well
and somebody said to me
use a newspaper rather than paper towels
to
get the windshield clean
I found that newspaper
is like filmy because it's
it's not just the ink but it's
recycled print material now
so it doesn't seem to
work as good but it
is lint free and if you're trying to cut down
on paper towel use
but also I think the big thing is
when you get done with your windshield cleaning it
go over it with a microfiber cloth
now a clean microfiber cloth
one that has been washed
rinsed out any of that stuff
just a brand new microfiber cloth
that to me really gets the windshield
nice and clean and gets that
film off the inside of the windshield
that a lot of windshields get
because it's outgassing with all the stuff
in there so
so there you go
the
difference sometimes in
you know some of the things you look at
and some of the things I get you know sometimes
and I don't get a lot of products to test out
but I got one
this week
that
I've been saying where has this been
and I'm a
fan of
if you've listened to me forever
you know that I think it's a good idea
to keep
a portable jump pack
in your car
as well as a portable air compressor
now the air compressor can be one of the ones
that plugs into a
I guess they still call them cigarette lighter plugs
even though there's no cigarette lighter
in most cars
but or one that you use
alligator clips and attach to the battery
I have
two
ones a little bit stronger than the other
the battery
it works well
the other one is your typical one that plugs into
a cigarette lighter style plug
runs a little air compressor
good enough to pump up the tire
if you ran over a nail you came out of somewhere
you look in the tires low or flat
at least you can pump it up and get somewhere
rather than have to change it
so that makes it easier
jump pack check them periodically
you know every four months or so
take it out of wherever you store it
make sure it's still fully charged because it will
go low
they are affected somewhat by cold
although I've used them
that have been outside in the cold
but I know some of my cordless
tool batteries don't like to be recharged
when they're really cold
just make sure it's in good shape
so it will be ready when you need it
but I've always kind of said
why isn't there an air compressor
and a jump pack
in the same little container
and years ago I had one
and I forget
I think it was Black and Decker
had their name on it and it was pretty big
and it had a little air compressor in it
and it had a 12 volt battery that was probably
used for like emergency lighting
battery because it was a regular
lead acid style battery
which at AAA
we prefer the lead acid
style batteries over the
over the
compact ones because the leads
are longer, it's easier to use for a jump start
we have our own reasons
for doing them
also we can replace the batteries when they go bad
where you can't do that with the lithium ion ones
but
it's like why is there
they have these little compact air compressors
that run on lithium ion batteries
and the battery air
compressor that I have
that has its own battery
is made by works
I've been very happy with it
it has the same 20 volt works battery
that all the other works stuff
that I have
leaf blower use
and
it works out well
but this one
is made by a company called
Nobo
and OBO
I know them from
a little flashlight that I have
called Nobo Torchi 2K
and I love this little
flashlight because it is
it has a magnetic base
it's about 3 inches long and it's a really
good little rechargeable flashlight
but this thing
as
the ability to jump start
your car has a little air compressor
it has a nice
longer hose that you attach to the hose
that's made onto it
and it has a snap on
style
thing you attach to the
valve stem rather than the screw on ones
the screw on ones are okay
but they're kind of a pain to put on
and take off and you let the air out of the tire when you're doing it
this one just kind of push it over
snap it on turn it on
went around check the air
and my wife's car
the other day one tire was a few pounds low
added up did a nice job
and the idea that it has the equivalent of
1500 amps of starting power
and it fits in
it's probably
6 inches by 8 inches
and 2 inches deep
comes in it's own little bag
just a neat little thing
so if you ever said hey I want to get something
for my car to keep in case of emergencies
rather than have two things at one
look at this
look at this unit by nobo and you can go on their website
you can find it
jessie how do we do
we have our winner it was kevin
kevin probably could have done the 950
9th caller without the phone lines pulled up
it's good to know it's good to know that people call it
we like that
let's see what else
we got going on here
have you ever encountered a problem with the
2025 Kia Sorento plug-in hybrid
vehicle
the first start up we drive we hear noise from under the rear portion
of the vehicle we call it crickets
or a percolating sound
it was mostly in the morning now all day
and quite annoying we went back to the dealer
they stated some
packing items were left underneath the vehicle
that's scary
it's still happening please let me know
if any of your community has had a similar problem
not that I'm aware of
I mean they put out a technical service bulletin
about noisy shock absorbers
over rough roads
I don't think that's it
I will say that new cars make some weird noises
I was in a Ford Explorer
which is a very nice vehicle
and I was parked
to answer a phone call
a couple of minutes there was a
and I'm using
big words
just to impress Jesse
a cacophony of sounds
coming from the vehicle
were you impressed
cacophony
and they were
weird sounds
but they're characteristic
I mean there's just something that's just
there
it's not anything broken
a sound so
somebody else said
they used to go to the library to get all data
but the library there the whole library stopped
subscribing to the all data publication
or a website
if you have a car that's older
than 2013
there is a website called
charm.li
and it's
you got to do the HTTP
colon thing thing not
www if you do it comes back
but do HTTP colon
backslash backslash
charm c-h-a-r-m dot
li
and it's actually a free
site with
tons of technical information
nearly every car but it does stop at
2013 so if you have
a 10, 11, 12 year old car
and you're looking for
information
it's pretty good
there's a lot of information
2015, 2016, 2017
some of this older stuff might get you
in the right direction
all data does have a DIY
subscription it's pretty affordable
you can get it for like one car
and it has all the information
Harbor Freight has a program called Truefix
I think it's $300 a year
I don't think
you have to buy their scanner to use it
and it has pretty much
it's motor publication
but it has everything but Toyota or Lexus
it does a good job so
there you go there's information there
and you can always send me an email at jpaul
at aaanortheast.com
and I could try to help you until next week
make sure you wear your seatbelts drive safely
be good to your car if you do see an emergency vehicle
by the side of the road slow down or move over
saves lives we'll talk to you all next week
bye bye
you
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