The business of auto body shops and a review of the Genesis G80

WATD presents John Paul, The Car Doctor, All Things Automotive.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

But remember, mark your calendar, folks,

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.

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

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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

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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

The business of auto body shops and a review of the Genesis G80

Porsche 959

Genesis G80

Mercedes-Benz Eclass

Bmw 5Series

Hyundai Genesis

Honda Odyssey

Honda Passport

Chevrolet Trax

Kia Sorento

Ford Explorer

About this episode

Original notes