The Ford Bronco is a rugged SUV meant for off-road driving, and it’s built to handle rough terrain with four-wheel drive. Here, the host is talking about his brand-new 2026 Bronco and how it showed up with a problem right away.
A pre-delivery inspection is the step where the dealership checks the car before you get it. It’s meant to make sure everything is in good shape and the car is ready to drive home.
The Ford F-150 is a popular big pickup truck. Because it’s often driven on dirtier roads, you can end up with a lot of grime and dust around the wheels and bumpers.
“White chalky dust” is just a powdery residue left on the car. The concern is that if it’s something like concrete dust, it could be harsh and potentially cause corrosion over time.
Wheel wells are the spaces around the tires inside the fender area. If dust or debris gets in there, it can stick around and reach other parts underneath.
A wiring harness is the car’s bundle of electrical wires. If dirty, powdery stuff gets into the area around it, it can potentially cause problems later, especially if it holds moisture.
The EPA is a U.S. agency that sets limits on what cars can put into the air. When those rules get tighter, carmakers have to add systems that reduce exhaust pollution.
A catalytic converter is a part in the exhaust that helps clean up the car’s fumes. It turns some of the harmful gases into less harmful ones before they leave the tailpipe.
Smog pumps (often called secondary air injection systems) add fresh air to the exhaust to help oxidize certain pollutants. They were more common on older emissions setups and are less prominent on many newer vehicles.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a famous American sports car. The host is using it as an example to show how emissions rules can reduce engine power compared with earlier, less-restricted times.
A differential is a part that lets wheels turn at different speeds when you go around a corner. That helps the car move smoothly instead of binding up.
Piston rings are small metal rings inside the engine that help seal the combustion area. If they get damaged, the engine can lose compression and fail.
Cylinder walls are the inside surfaces of the engine where the pistons slide. If they’re damaged, the rings can’t seal properly, and the engine may not run correctly.
Infotainment is the car’s screen system for things like music, maps, and settings. A glitch means the software acts up—like freezing, restarting, or going blank.
Calibration is the car’s settings for how its sensors and systems should behave. After an update, those settings can be off, which can cause odd behavior or warning messages.
Cars usually run on a 12-volt battery that powers the electronics. If that battery gets weak, the car’s computers can start acting weird because they don’t get steady power.
Jumper cables are the cables you use to start a car with a dead battery by borrowing power from another car. If you hook them up the wrong way, you can damage the car’s electronics.
The Ford Maverick is a small pickup truck from Ford. In this segment, it’s the truck the guest bought, and the discussion turns to what happened when it was backing out.
This is a safety system that tries to spot people walking near your car. If it thinks you might hit them, it can alert you and sometimes brake automatically to help prevent or lessen the crash.
This feature warns you if a car is coming from the side when you’re backing up. It helps you avoid accidents in parking lots where visibility is limited.
The host brings up the Honda Accord to make a point: different versions of the same model can have different safety features. You should verify what your exact car includes.
This means the car may have the hardware for a feature, but you have to pay (often monthly or yearly) to unlock it. The feature is controlled by software, not just what’s physically installed.
Heated seats warm up the seats for cold weather. The host is saying that sometimes the car can show a button for it, but the heat won’t work if the feature isn’t actually enabled.
The window sticker is the official paper on a new car that lists what the car actually includes. If you want to know whether it has certain safety features, that sticker is where you can verify it.
An option package is a bundled set of features a manufacturer sells together, often for an extra cost. In this context, the host is saying some safety tech is only included if you buy the specific package.
Term
required by the government
The host is saying some safety features are mandated by law for new cars. That’s why they show up on many vehicles without paying extra.
A 360 surround camera uses cameras around the car to help you see near the vehicle from multiple angles. It’s especially useful for parking and tight spots.
Adaptive cruise control is like regular cruise control, but it also slows down or speeds up to keep a safe distance from the car in front. If it has a fault, it may not control speed correctly.
Lane keeping assist watches the lane lines and tries to keep you from drifting. It can feel weird if it “corrects” your steering when you’re already driving carefully.
The Chevrolet Nova is an older compact car made by Chevrolet. The podcast brings it up because someone had one that was new in the 1970s. It’s the kind of car people talk about when discussing older vehicles from that time period.
Modern cars use computers to control how the transmission and engine behave. Sometimes the problem is fixed by updating the car’s settings in software instead of replacing parts.
A CVT is a type of automatic transmission that can change ratios smoothly instead of using fixed gears. The big takeaway here is that it needs regular fluid service to stay healthy.
Transmission fluid is the “oil” that keeps the transmission working smoothly. If you don’t change it, the transmission can wear out faster or start acting up.
Coolant is the fluid that keeps the engine from getting too hot. The host is saying not to wait too long to service it.
LIVE
Hey folks, Lenny Lawson, the car guru, and I am not happy.
I bought a 2026 Ford Bronco.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Ford Bronco.
It's kind of like a four-wheel drive that drives like a sports car.
I love the color of it.
I love when I step back and look at it.
It passes the next morning driveway test where there's no buyer's remorse.
As I've said, I buy a vehicle like every 18 to 24 months because I don't like swapping vehicles all the time.
And I do the same thing for my wife, even though I own a car dealership.
It's just something I do.
Plus the IRS likes it better that way if I pay for what I drive.
They consider that income if the dealership pays for it.
So I get to know where all my stuff is, like my old manuals and tools and weaponry.
Just kidding.
But anyway, I'm not happy because I saw this vehicle when it came in.
That's one of the reasons I wanted it.
When they were unloading it off the truck, they pulled it into the service drive.
Oh, I just love this color.
It's a very light, soft, kind of a gray color.
Kind of looks like paint primer, except prettier.
But it was covered with grayish white dust.
So I'm just thinking it's dirty.
So they washed it, pulled it around after they did the pre-delivery inspection and all that.
I saw it out there and I said, I'm going to drive it home.
I drove it home.
I've been driving an F-150.
I told everybody I was going to buy a Maverick, but I backed out of that.
So I was just really wanting to change.
So I drove it home.
Love the way it drove and everything.
But you know, the wheels were still coated with this black, dusty stuff and it had it behind the bumpers and everything.
So I just kind of rode it off as just needing another cleanup job.
Well, here I am two weeks later after buying this thing and the wheels keep spitting out this white chalky dust.
So I looked inside the spokes of the wheel and the inside of the wheels are just covered with this stuff.
The inside of the bumpers, the wiring harnesses around the wheel wells.
And I said, my goodness, what is this stuff?
You wipe it with your finger.
It's a very white chalky kind of a substance.
I think it's concrete dust.
I hope not because that could be very corrosive.
You know, if a customer had bought this other than me, I am a customer in this regard.
But if a customer had purchased this other than me and noticed this, they'd be wanting their money back.
They would think we sold them a used vehicle.
We didn't.
How did it get dirty?
I have no idea.
But it was driven through something and it was splashed as well.
And I mean, it was just covered with this dust.
So we took the wheels off.
I got back there and cleaned them because the cleanup shop wasn't getting them clean enough.
I used three different types of chemicals.
I came back, looked at all the different components underneath the car are all covered with it.
So I sent a message to my regional manager with the Ford Motor Company and described it to him and sent him pictures.
He has not responded yet.
I said, what do I do about this?
How do I get all this off?
I think we're going to have to pressure wash it.
But then again, I don't like using pressure around all these wiring connectors and brake parts.
So I guess worst case scenario is I try to get Ford to buy the thing back.
But it's just weird to have somebody buy a vehicle back because it's not clean.
So that's probably not going to work.
I'm just going to have to keep working on.
Have you ever had a problem where you bought a new vehicle and just right off the bat?
Something wasn't right.
That can be very frustrating.
I mean, I understand why people freak out over things like that.
My service manager just sent me a message here.
Oh, so he wants me to come back and look at it and see what I think.
That doesn't sound good.
I'd rather him say, we got it all.
It's perfectly clean.
But I'm telling you, if it was the average customer, they would be not happy and they would be wanting to trade it or something.
I'm sure some people would do research on concrete dust and see what it does just like I did.
But you know, this isn't the biggest quality issue to hit the auto industry right now.
Concrete dust.
Now, the most common problems on new vehicles today are very different than what they were when I first got into the car business.
When I got into the car business, it was the 70s.
And the entire industry was struggling under the weight of EPA restrictions on vehicles.
And they had to figure out a way to cut the emissions coming out the exhaust pipe.
So they came up with all kinds of electronic controls, smog pumps, catalytic converters, and all they did was smother the power of engines.
At one point, a Chevrolet Corvette had 180 horsepower.
I mean, not too long before that, it had had 400 plus horsepower.
So it was a tough time.
But those problems were government mandated issues that we had to overcome.
But really today, engines, transmissions, drive trains, you know, when I say drive train, I mean, you know, the differentials and the transfer case on a four-wheel drive, they're really reliable.
Probably more reliable than ever, with the exception of, you know, some problems, some engine problems that Hyundai's and Kia's and Toyota and General Motors had with their...
I can't remember the term, but it's just excess metal that's left over after the engine manufacturing process.
And they didn't get it all cleaned out.
Therefore, it is destroying the rings and the cylinders or cylinder walls and causing engine failures.
So that's not good.
But most complaints today center around electronics.
That's right.
Electronics, technology, and software.
Number one complaint, as a matter of fact, are those infotainment system glitches, frozen screens, random reboots.
You're going down the road and all of a sudden your screen goes blank, Bluetooth connectivity issues, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto failures.
Probably the single biggest complaint on new vehicles today.
Second are software bugs, warning lights appearing with no actual failure, features not functioning correctly, the frequent over-the-air update issues that happen without us knowing about it or our approval or being alerted to it.
And then calibration problems after those updates.
Modern vehicles often contain hundreds and hundreds of computers and computer modules.
I mean, we can't even put a power window down now without a computer making a decision.
How hard is he pressing on that switch?
Did he press really hard and wanted to go down as soon as he takes his finger off of it or did he just push lightly on it?
Yep, I think he just wants it to go down just a little bit.
So that's what they do.
All of that decision making is being made by a computer.
Also, one of the biggest problems are battery problems.
You know, usually, well, used to if you had a 12 volt battery, it'll last 36 months to maybe 48 months if you were lucky.
Now, when they just start to get weak, all kinds of weird things start happening with the different computers on the car.
They have to have a precise amount of voltage.
And this happens when vehicles aren't driven enough to maintain a charge or if there's an excessive electronic drain by one of the electronic components.
Or if our battery goes completely dead and then we unknowingly connect the jumper cables the wrong way and we fry a computer system.
You know, you were worried about, you know, you've been listening to this show, you're worried about not having jumper cables,
but you forgot to pay attention as to how to hook them up and you forgot to read the owner's manual as whether you're even supposed to jump start that car.
Some cars should not be jump started, not by you or anybody else.
But you won't know that unless you read the owner's manual.
Have you read yours?
Go to the battery section.
See what it says about jump starting.
It may say caution.
There may be a big stop sign.
Do not proceed with the jump start.
I'll be back in just one minute.
We had a guy buy a Ford Maverick from us and bless his heart.
He was backing it out of a parking place and ran right into somebody.
Well, he was mad at us, Gateway Ford, because he thought his car would stop before it hit anybody else.
And many of them will, but not his.
It wasn't equipped with pedestrian detection or cross traffic alert.
Didn't have those features.
Does your car have those features?
Do you think it does and it doesn't?
Well, he was mad.
He said, I thought my vehicle had that.
We probably didn't tell him that it had it.
It certainly wasn't on the windows sticker that it had it.
And on an Nissan, it's standard that has this entire suite of safety features.
They're not standard on every product that's sold in America.
You need to make sure if your vehicle has it or not.
Again, if you saved your window sticker, it should be on there under the standard features.
In some cases, they are optional features.
So if you bought a Honda Accord or a Toyota RAV4 or BMW, I don't know, three series,
you should make sure that your vehicle has it.
With BMW, it might be something you have to subscribe to.
You know, that's a big thing right now.
It has the capability to do all these things, but now you've got to subscribe to a software package.
And then the software will be downloaded off the worldwide web to your computer,
to the computer on your vehicle, and then you'll have it.
BMW got in trouble with their customers because the customers had a button that said they had heated seats,
but they didn't work.
Nope, got to subscribe to it.
Well, they had to change that in a heartbeat because that ticked off a lot of folks.
And I understand why, but you need to make sure when you buy a new vehicle that you check to see what it actually does have.
And it should say it on the window sticker.
And if you are not sure whether it has it or not, ask.
Now it's possible that the answer you get will be wrong because probably 60 to 70% of the salespeople,
they don't know that much about the product they're selling.
You probably know more than they do.
You need to find a 30% or salesperson who knows this product.
You know, I've got, let's see, 12 salespeople and probably half of them know everything about everything I sell.
The rest of them are learning it.
And we tell them if somebody asks you a question and you don't know the answer to it,
it's best to say you don't know the answer, but you'll quickly find out.
Take a note, write it down, and then move on.
Or if they want an answer right now, excuse yourself and go ask somebody who does know.
Because I don't want somebody buying a car thinking that it has all of this safety stuff and it doesn't.
I mean, I feel sorry for the guy, but he wants us to contact Ford about it,
but it's not Ford's fault that they didn't build the vehicle with the safety equipment that he thought it had.
It does have a backup camera.
It has all of the required stuff, but you have to pay extra.
It's a different option package to have all the other stuff.
Blind spot monitoring, I think, is standard.
I think that's required by the government and the backup camera and all that stuff.
But we have a lot of vehicles that have the 360 surround camera where you can see.
It's like there's a satellite floating above you with a camera or a drone,
and it looks down and it sees your entire car and you can see everything around you.
And people say, well, why don't I get that?
Well, you can, but you just have to pay extra for it.
Does your car have that?
That's a really nice feature.
That'll keep you from running over the cozy coupe in the driveway or one of the kids' skateboards.
But you know, you can have all of those safety features and still run over something.
I had a UPS driver.
I had to pull him out of a ditch.
I just built a new barn and we cut the driveway and where the old driveway meets the new driveway.
There's about a two-foot drop right now and he went right down in it.
No, it wasn't a UPS driver.
It was a Terminex man.
That's right, the Terminex guy.
And he got stuck.
And I had these big orange cones, like you see on the road, I had three of them just lined up in there.
He just backed all over him, went into the ditch, had to pull him out with my side-by-side.
So you can't help that.
Okay, so driver assistance systems, are they problematic?
Usually not.
Occasionally there are adaptive cruise control faults.
There are a lot of complaints from different manufacturers about lane keeping assist.
I don't like that feature, especially around town.
You know, if you're driving through town and you happen to get too close to the side of the road or to the middle of the road,
it wants to adjust your steering wheel and it's just very disconcerting.
You know, you need to turn that off most of the time, but if you're on a highway,
you know, you're on a four-lane and interstate and you're going down the road and you're getting sleepy,
well, if you're getting sleepy you should pull off.
But a lot of people won't, so at least turn that on.
So if you're drifting from one side of the lane to the other, then, you know,
it'll probably, or could save your life in the lives of others.
Interior rattles and squeaks, this used to be a terrible problem.
Back in the 70s and 80s, even in the 90s.
One time we had this customer had a Chevy Nova and it was new.
This was in the 70s and they had a rattle in their door and it was awful.
I had just started, well, I was learning the body shop side of the business
and I was writing estimates and this lady comes up and said,
I've got this terrible rattle in my door and it wasn't a very old car.
And so we made an appointment, she brought it back, dropped it off.
Technician took the inside door panel off, the driver's side door panel,
and called me over and said, Lenny, come here and look at this.
I went and looked.
There was a coke can in the bottom of the door.
And matter of fact, it had even been undercoated.
Back then they would undercoat the doors.
Well, they would spray this rust preventative inside the door.
Well, half of the coke can was coated with rust preventative.
And the rest said Coca-Cola.
Well, there was the cause of the rattle.
Somebody in Detroit must have been built on a Friday or a Monday.
Isn't that what they used to say?
But yeah, that was the problem.
So we took it out.
I had to decide whether to show it to her or not.
I decided to show it to her.
She was happy.
She didn't care.
I think she said must have been built on a Friday.
Well, that was possible.
You know, somebody was taking a break and had a nice refreshing cola
and didn't have any place else to put it.
So they just stuck it in the door.
We don't see that kind of stuff anymore.
Haven't seen a coke can in the door ever except that one time.
But we don't see a lot of squeaks and rattles and leaks.
And I'm driving a new Ford Bronco.
And it's the one with the cement dust all over it.
And so it has a top on it that is removable.
It's a hard top.
It has like two, like teatops.
You remember the old teatops?
There is no bar in the middle.
But the middle section is removable and the rear section is removable.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it?
It will never be removed by me.
I can assure you that.
But I took it through a car wash.
I wanted to see if this thing was going to leak.
And so I went to one of those fancy ones, you know, that has all the different foams.
And it's over there beside Walmart where we live.
And I said, okay, here's your test Bronco.
You know what?
It didn't leak a drop.
I was impressed.
They've learned their lesson.
Okay.
And then the final issue that we see a lot of, unfortunately, are transmission issues.
And most of them are, well, involve computer calibration.
No repairs necessary.
But I know GM has had a lot of problems with their automatics.
Anybody that sells CVT transmissions have had issues, continuously variable transmission.
If your car has one of those, then the key to survivability is maintenance.
I don't know.
They told you when you bought it, you never had to change the transmission fluid.
But please do.
Do it every 30,000 miles.
More than likely that CVT will be just fine.
You know, sometimes I've seen some manufacturers say change the transmission fluid at 100,000 miles.
Don't wait that long.
You know, don't wait that long to change your coolant either.
You know, I think 30,000 miles is a good time to just get all that old coolant out of there and put new coolant in there.
Because it's just, there's too many things that can go wrong over a period of five or six years and 100,000 miles.
Okay, electrical accessories are sometimes problems.
And usually it's because of a bad connector somewhere.
I mean, these have proven, I mean, the reliability is very good as far as wiring harnesses are concerned.
But there are just so many of them.
And what happens is when they get unplugged, plugged and unplugged, like if you have to have something replaced inside your vehicle and a connection has to be separated,
then when they put it back together, the pins don't line up and then you have some other electrical issue.
So a lot of these issues are created at the dealership because of technicians and a big hurry.
Okay, I'll be back in just one minute.
One of the things I'd recommend is after you get your car serviced.
Well, I've always said that if you get your oil changed, no matter who changes it, you need to get it home, let it cool down and go and pull out your dipstick and just make sure that it's at the full mark.
That it's not got too much in it and that it's not low.
If it's a little bit low, then, you know, you need to go back and say, guys, you didn't get my oil level up to the full mark.
But just make sure that they don't overfill it because that can damage an engine just as bad as not having enough oil.
So it loses its ability to protect the engine because it gets all bubbly and foams up when you have too much oil in there.
And then it loses its, like I say, its ability to protect the engine like it's supposed to.
Okay, not a lot of tire and wheel issues.
We used to have terrible problems with tires, so unreliable, so poorly made, you know, lots of bumps in the sidewalls and tires that just could not be balanced.
Tire quality has really improved, just like car quality has really improved.
Well, why do we have so many recalls?
Well, because the cars are so complicated and because the manufacturers are very gun-shy about any type of safety issue,
because they'd rather have a recall and get it taken care of cheaply than face the massive fines that they could incur by the federal government.
Well, I hope this opened your eyes a little bit to some of the car issues that are going on today.
If you're having any of these and you can't get resolution, feel free to text me 423-552-2020.
I just might be able to give you some valuable advice when it comes to solving a seemingly unsolvable mechanical problem.
423-552-2020 for the Cargo Route. I'll see you next time.
About this episode
Grayish dust on a new Bronco, chalky wheel residue on a fresh pickup, and contamination worries that lead to dealer escalation set the tone for modern reliability headaches. The host then zooms out to explain why today’s biggest complaints skew electronic: infotainment glitches, OTA software bugs, and calibration issues. He also covers practical fixes and prevention—12-volt battery problems, careful jump-starting, CVT and coolant intervals, and checking oil level after service—plus how to verify safety tech on the window sticker.
