The State Of The Auto Industry, Spring 2026
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Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes is a major car company known for luxury cars. In this episode, they’re talking about how Mercedes created a performance arm called AMG.
Concept
Le Mans
Le Mans is a legendary long-distance race in France. It’s often used as a reference point for when car companies ramped up their racing efforts.
Concept
24 hours of spa
This is a famous long-distance race in Belgium where cars have to keep running fast for a whole day. Doing well there is a big deal because it shows the car can handle stress and reliability.
Brand
AMG
AMG is Mercedes-Benz’s performance arm. They’re known for making Mercedes cars much faster and more track-capable, and this story explains how they grew from racing into a major brand.
Car
Bmw M
The BMW M Coupe (E36) is a sporty version of a BMW 3 Series from the 1990s. It was made to feel more performance-oriented than a regular model. It’s discussed because it’s a specific, enthusiast-focused car from BMW’s performance lineup.
Concept
batteries get cheaper
Batteries are one of the most expensive parts of an EV. If battery prices drop, EVs can become cheaper to buy.
Concept
electric vehicles do cost more on a comparably equipped vehicle
Even if an EV is a great car, it can still cost more than a similar gas car. If the price stays higher, most people won’t buy EVs in large numbers.
Car
Ford Mach-E
The Ford Mach-E is Ford’s electric car. The point is that Ford has already been making EVs, so switching strategies isn’t totally new for them.
Concept
ICE vehicles
ICE vehicles are regular gas or diesel cars. The speaker is saying it’s harder to disrupt the old gas-car market than it is the newer electric-car market.
Concept
EV tax credit
An EV tax credit is money the government gives (through your taxes) to help you buy an electric car. If it gets taken away, the car usually costs more, so fewer people buy them.
Concept
EVs
An EV is a car that runs on electricity from a battery instead of gasoline. People usually decide based on how much it costs, how far it can go, and whether charging is easy where they live.
Term
range anxiety
Range anxiety is the fear that your EV won’t have enough battery to get where you’re going. It usually comes from not knowing how far you can drive or where you can charge next.
Term
charging infrastructure
Charging infrastructure is basically the availability of EV charging stations. If there aren’t enough chargers where you live or travel, owning an EV can feel harder.
Concept
tariffs
A tariff is a tax on things brought in from other countries. If cars or car parts are imported, that tax can make them cost more for automakers—and often end up costing more for you.
Brand
Nissan
Nissan is a major Japanese automaker with U.S. manufacturing operations, including plants in the South. In this discussion, it’s used as an example in the union-vs-non-union labor debate.
Term
fifth wheel
A fifth wheel is a towing hitch setup used to pull a trailer. It’s designed to make towing bigger trailers safer and more stable than simpler hitches.
Concept
Car and Driver
Car and Driver is a well-known car magazine. The host is saying it influenced him a lot when he was younger.
Company
Motor Trend
Motor Trend is a big car magazine/news outlet. The host is listing it as part of what he read growing up.
Term
four cylinder engines
A four-cylinder engine is an engine with four combustion chambers. It’s often chosen because it can be more efficient and less expensive than bigger engines.
Term
manual transmissions
A manual transmission means you shift gears yourself with a clutch and a stick. Some people like it because it feels more connected to driving.
Concept
barn for over 40 years
A “barn find” is a car that’s been sitting in storage for a very long time. It can be exciting because it might be low-mileage, but it may also need work because it wasn’t used for years.
Concept
water spotting
Water spotting is when dried water leaves marks on your car’s paint or windows. The minerals in the water can leave ugly spots if you don’t prevent or remove them quickly.
Brand
eBay Motors
eBay Motors is an online marketplace for car-related stuff. The host is saying you can find car cleaning products there too.
Brand
Chemical Guys
Chemical Guys makes car cleaning supplies. The host likes their products for cleaning the inside of the car, especially the floor mats and carpet after winter.
Term
sticky icky
“Sticky icky” is a sticky gel/putty you press into dirty spots in the car. It grabs crumbs and grime from tight areas like cup holders, and you can often reuse it by kneading it.
Term
leather seats
Leather seats require specific cleaning products because harsh chemicals or overly abrasive tools can damage the hide or strip protective finishes. The speaker recommends starting with a light spray leather cleaner and using an appropriate brush to avoid abrasion.
Term
leather cleaner
Leather cleaner is a soap-like product made for leather seats. It cleans the surface so the next step—conditioning—can actually protect the leather.
Term
armor all
Armor All is a popular product people use to make interior plastics look shiny. The point here is you don’t have to keep applying it heavily to get good results.
Term
NASCAR
NASCAR is a popular American racing series with stock cars. The podcast usually talks about what’s happening in NASCAR.
Term
Tyler Reddick
Tyler Reddick is a NASCAR driver. The host says he was the strongest car in the race and won convincingly.
Company
DW Derral Waltrip
“DW” refers to Darrell Waltrip, a former NASCAR driver and long-time broadcaster. His perspective carries weight because he’s both a former competitor and a media voice, so his critiques of rules like stage racing are taken seriously.
Concept
throwback paint scheme
That’s when a NASCAR team paints a car to look like an older version from the past. It’s done for nostalgia and fan interest, not because it changes the car’s performance.
LIVE
Hello, and welcome to the Truth About Cars podcast. I am Tim Haley, the managing editor,
and this week we're talking with longtime automotive journalist Matt DiLorenzo about
the state of the automotive industry. T-Tech contributor Matthew Guy stops by to discuss
cleaning your car's interior, and then I recap some highlights from NASCAR's Goodyear
400 at Darlington. But first, a word from our sponsor, eBay Motors.
This message comes from eBay. The worst part about loving cars might just be buying them,
and all the parts. From Toyotas to Aston Martins, eBay has thousands of cars,
and the largest online selection of vehicle parts and accessories. eBay, things people love.
Today on the Truth About Cars podcast, we are chatting with Matt DiLorenzo. He runs
the website Titewad Garage. He also has a new book out. He's a longtime automotive journalist,
probably best known for being a hire up at Road and Track for a very long time. So Matt,
how are you doing today? I'm great, Tim. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for hopping on. So for
our listeners' note, we're going to have instead of focusing on one topic today, we'll do a few
different things. We'll let Matt talk about his new book. It will also talk a little industry,
talk a little shop, and then talk a little bit maybe if Matt has any war stories from the old
days or Road and Track you'd like to share that won't get him in trouble. So Matt, let's go ahead
and start with your book. Kind of walk us through that. I did a book called Mercedes AMG, Race
Bread Performance from Motorbooks. It's on Amazon right now, and it's basically a history of AMG,
how it came together and became the performance division of Mercedes. And it's an interesting
story because Hans Werner Offrecht, who's the A and Erhard Melker, who's the
M, and then G is Gross Ospach, which is the town where Offrecht was from.
Yes, I didn't know what AMG stood for. Yeah, and they were both young engineers at Mercedes,
and they wanted to go racing at a time when Mercedes was really winding down a lot of their
racing efforts. In the early 60s, they had kind of gotten back into racing after Le Mans,
but they were mainly doing things like touring cars and rallies and that kind of thing.
And they really wanted to go racing, and the management said no. When they first met each
other, they didn't really get along, but then Offrecht recognized the mechanical genius of
Melker. And they started tuning cars and winning races on their own time. And so they eventually
left the company. And the thing that put them on the map was in 1971, they took a big 300 SEL
and with a V8 engine and came in second at the 24 hours of spa and won their class. And
people started coming to them to get race cars and road cars built. Mercedes wasn't hot on tuners
back in the day because they thought they built perfect cars. So it wasn't until the 1980s when
AMG actually ran Mercedes' DTM team, the German touring car series team, and won a bunch of races.
And then Mercedes decided to let them sell their cars through their network and then eventually
ended up buying the company and converting it into their performance division. It's much
along the lines of BMW M, but M was a totally in-house built program where Mercedes actually
went out and bought AMG. Interesting. So the book is out now? Yeah, it came out in November.
Mercedes was terrific. They gave me access to their archives. So there's just some really
incredible photography stuff in there that hasn't been widely seen from the early days of AMG and
then plus a lot of the development of such legendary cars as the SLS Gullwing. There's a
complete chapter on the new AMG-1 hypercar. One of their biggest selling models is the G-Wagen.
And there's interesting stories in there about how AMG was offering tuned versions of the
G-Wagen almost since it came out in 1979. So it was really kind of cool.
Is there anything else you came across from working in the book that you'd like to share
before we move on to other topics, whether it's something from the book you want to highlight
or maybe something that you really thought was interesting but could not fit into the book?
Oh, well, you know, there were a lot of stories about the hammer and how that developed. And I
was really trying to get ahold of the guy who ran AMG in North America because they kind of pulled
the rug out from underneath them when AMG signed to sell their cars through Mercedes networks.
They basically killed all their AMG distributorships around the world. And I never got a chance to
talk to the guy who ran AMG North America. I think he's pretty bitter about it and didn't
really want to. He thought this was an official book and it wasn't. But, you know, I get that,
but it was business, it was business back in the day and that's what happened.
Yeah. Okay, cool. So again, just please repeat the title of the book for our listeners.
Sure. It's called Mercedes AMG Race Bread Performance and you can find it on Amazon,
BarnesandNoble.com and then also available through the Motor Books website.
Awesome. So, Matt, we're going to switch gears now and discuss, you're a longtime industry
veteran. We have the New York Auto Show coming up right around the corner. It is wonderful,
wonderful is the wrong word. I was going to say weird. It is, excuse me, it is weird times. Well,
the industry is always unique and always amusing no matter what's going on. I don't think there's
ever been a boring time, at least not in the 15, 20 years that I've been doing this. And even before
then, when I was a child reading Road and Track, I don't recall there ever being a truly boring and
stable time in the industry. Even when things are good, there's always something going on. Yeah,
there's something going on. So what is your read on what's happened over the past six months to
a year, whether it's the shifts in the electric vehicle market, the tariffs from President Trump,
the looming threat of Chinese vehicles, anything else that's kind of just out of your mind?
Yeah, I'm not running around with my hair on fire, like a lot of people about the whole EV thing
right now, because I think the market will sort that out. I mean, EVs are great. I love driving
them. I own a leaf. And I think that in certain applications, they really make sense for a lot
of people, but they aren't a sole answer to all our transportation needs. And that's where I differ
with a lot of people, because they think that there's going to be some sort of big transition.
There may be, but it's going to happen later and not sooner. And the latest one that gets me is
everybody saying, oh, the industry by recalibrating and going back to building ICE, they're going
they're going to put themselves out of business. And I totally disagree with that view is EV is
a drivetrain. Manufacturers have offered a variety of drivetrains over the life of the vehicles. And
so if there is a change and batteries get cheaper, they're going to become cheaper for everybody.
And manufacturers already know how to put cars together. It's just a question of replacing
gas engines with electric motors and batteries that if they cost the same as
IC engines and people, if there are two vehicles out there that cost the same and people prefer
the EV, they're going to buy the EV and the manufacturers will build. So I think the manufacturers
who are flexible are the ones who are going to survive. I think we've seen the ones who made
the commitment to go all electric are the ones that are really scrambling right now, the volvos of
the world, a Porsche to some extent, certainly VW Group. So, you know, change, that's the only
constant in this business. And I think the manufacturers will survive. I think right now,
the big thing is that electric vehicles do cost more on a comparably equipped vehicle.
There still is a price difference where EVs are more expensive than gas engine cars. And until
that gets rectified, I don't see EVs becoming the dominant vehicle in the market.
Yeah, I kind of agree with you a little bit. There's been some doom saying the New York Times
has a couple articles on this about American automakers becoming niche players if they don't
just as the EV market kind of backs off a little. I'm not quite sure. I see the logic of that argument
and I can see where they're coming from. And I'm not totally part of me. Part of me thinks, well,
okay, yeah, if the GMs and Ford's of the world aren't careful, they'll go down that path. But
another part of me is like, yeah, no, there's enough, I think enough EVs being produced by the
automakers, the American automakers and enough Ford has battery plants in the world. I think you
might be right that maybe there's a little bit of doom saying there. That's a thing. They're not
going to be a niche player. They're mass market players right now. And EVs aren't the mass market.
If EVs become the mass market, they're going to make that shift. It isn't like they haven't done
this before. Ford offered the Mach-E. They have any number of electric or electrified vehicles.
Same thing with GM. They've done this. So I don't see this transition as a big thing. The
big threat are Chinese vehicles. And the problem with them is that they're heavily subsidized by
the government. I don't think they reflect the true cost of an EV. And there are some actual
national security issues at hand here with data that I think that I don't think they're going to
be as big a factor in this market as people are predicting them to be. And in markets where they've
had huge inroads, the governments could, on a national security basis, ban those vehicles or
high tariffs on them as we have. It's not an absolute that they're going to be this juggernaut
that's going to roll over everybody because there are national security issues in play here
rather than just pure economic ones. Yeah. And it's worth noting that both the Biden and Trump
administration have kept Chinese vehicles at bay via tariffs. Sure. So it's been a bipartisan thing.
I definitely think the fears are real because the Chinese government is not playing fair and
because the vehicles from all indications are really good. I've not been around one. I've
not been to the Chinese to the Beijing Motor Show. I've not driven one. But journalists,
I know who have, journalists I trust, journalists who I think are trustworthy and not just
Right. Right.
in one way or another. I have reported that the vehicles are pretty good to sit in and even drive.
And they can be great vehicles, but the question is, if they're being dumped in the US market,
it's not fair competition. Yeah, exactly. And they actually could be costing more than what
they're being sold for through government subsidies and those sorts of things. And
certainly that's their model is they want to disrupt markets and one way to disrupt the
auto industry, they can't really, they haven't been successful with ICE vehicles, but
the EV field is wide open right now. So that's why they're exploiting that area.
Yeah. Yeah. And I tend to think just to give my two cents when it comes to EVs in general,
not just Chinese vehicles, I tend to think that, you know, I don't love what the Trump
administration has done to kind of hurt the EV market, taking away the EV tax credit
and some other steps, you know, loosing fuel counter regulations. And that will probably
free of automakers and not just the Americans. Some automakers may start chasing the higher
profit internal combustion SUVs and maybe not focusing EVs as much as they probably should.
But that being said, I think there's still enough demand for EVs that automakers will still
plan for them. And I think the bigger problem is, and you can blame, I think any one of the past,
you can blame the current administration and the most recent ones for just, and you can also blame
local governments and the private sector for not really working on charging. I think, I think,
I've said this a million times in those podcasts whenever we discuss EVs. I think the biggest
reason why people aren't buying EVs more, well, there's a couple reasons. One, MSRPs are high,
although MSRPs are also high on ICE engines or ICE powertrains as well. But I think range anxiety
is the biggest thing. And I think the good news is a lot of EVs are now getting to 250,
300 miles of range. And to me, 300 is a magic number. I think 300 or over matches most internal
combustion vehicles. But the thing is, it's still much faster to get gas than it is to charge.
Even a fast charger can be done in half an hour. Getting gas is done in five minutes.
And there's still a lot more gas stations than there are chargers around. So I think
that's just my opinion, and I could be wrong, but just looking at what I know of the industry
and having driven a bunch of EVs right now, I think the biggest hold back, especially for people
who live in multifamily buildings or urban areas where they don't have their own parking,
or rural areas, is charging, lack of charging infrastructure. If you live in a rural area,
you can find a gas station close by, even if you live on a farm in the middle of nowhere.
There's got to be a gas station within half an hour's drive, right? If you live, if you street
park your car, if you park in an apartment parking garage with 300 other cars, there's going to be
gas station around nearby somewhere. But with EV charging, that's trickier. So I think at some
point, and at some point there will be a tipping point, I've had an article sitting in drafts
for like two or three years, I just hadn't finished yet about, I talked to an EV expert,
journalist, analyst about why gas stations aren't themselves offering more charging. It's a very
interesting and complex answer, but you don't have time to get into today. But the thing is,
there's a lot of reasons why it's easy to get gas and not so easy to charge your EV. I think
charging infrastructure, once that increases, will improve. So I don't want to take up all of our
time on just EVs. So is there anything else in the industry that you kind of wanted to
highlight as someone who's been doing this for a very long time?
Well, I think one of the interesting things is the sheer variety of vehicles that are out there
in some new segments that are opening up that I'm particularly excited about. One of them
are compact pickups. I'm a big fan of the Maverick. I think trucks, yeah, and trucks have been the
victim of mission creep, you know, every generation seems to get a little bit bigger, a little bit
bigger. And now you, you know, you have a midsize ranger truck that's almost as big as a two or
three generation ago full size pickup. And the ranger started out as a compact pickup. So I'm
really, I can't wait for some of these like, you know, Toyota has been talking about bringing out
this stout. You know, Stalantis has been talking about a midranger compact truck. I just like
these vehicles. And I think that they're very useful. And I think they really hit a chord with
me for some reason that I think that, you know, if you want to get away from a lot of the gas
guzzling vehicles that we we need to we need to look at at vehicles like these compact pickup
trucks. Yeah, I think a Dakota might be on the way to either as a midsize or compact. Yeah, yeah,
so cool, you know. Yeah, and I drove that, you know, they're putting performance and I drove
that Maverick Lobo this year. And, you know, it's a driver's truck. I was amazed. And I'm like,
there's so many cool things that you can do in terms of accessorizing and and fixing them up.
And and the thing is that you can fit it in a garage, you do have some capability with the
with the with the pickup bed, I just think it's really a neat vehicle. Now, if we can only bring
back like coupes and station wagons, and I'll be back to my youth, you know.
Yeah, and it's kind of funny, these compact trucks get bigger, well, then the space is open up,
now let's put in the compact truck. So yeah, I have not driven the Lobo yet, but I've driven
the Maverick other versions of it. And it's, it's such a great little truck. Yeah. And I was
actually kind of laughing, I had dinner with a friend recently, who's also a car guy, but he's
not in the industry, but he's a car person. And we were sitting at dinner and went to get a drink
afterwards. And the bar had a security camera on the front. And we saw 100 Santa Cruz parked in
the street. And he goes, Santa Cruz, they're just not selling many of those I never see any.
And I thought, yeah, you know, I thought to myself, why isn't Santa Cruz selling better? And I
thought to myself, well, Maverick, that's the answer. Well, yeah, yeah, you know, I think the
the problem with the Santa Cruz is it's it's not quite a traditional pickup truck in that sense.
It's more of an SUV and it's more expensive. Whereas the the styling of the, you know,
you know what the Maverick is, you know, it's a pickup truck. So the Maverick is the truck for
people who don't need to tow a huge amount, who don't need a huge bed, who don't need a huge
massive interior, I think, or who live in who who like me live in an urban area with with tighter
parking. I think that's that's where the Maverick's perfect. It's brilliant. Yeah, for that kind of
thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you talk to us real briefly about tariffs, and then I want to hear
a couple of war stories, maybe from the old days of the automotive above books. Okay.
Tariffs. Yeah. So where are you at on tariffs? Well, I, you know, yeah, I, I'm not again,
I'm not my hair is not on fire over that. I think two, two, two main observations. One is
one of the intents of that is to onshore jobs, which I agree with, I think we should be building
cars here. Certainly the Trent, you know, the Asian manufacturing, even the Germans understand
the value of building vehicles in North America, you know, the largest exporter of trucks in North
America is BMW because they build all their SUVs in South Carolina and export them worldwide.
So I think that's a good thing. And, and, and if tariffs are so bad, then I failed to understand
the logic that there aren't all these people clamoring for the 25% chicken tax to go away,
which has been around since the mid 60s, and which has enabled the manufacturers, North American
manufacturers at least to dominate the light duty truck market. So, you know, it's, it's another
tool. I think it's a policy tool like anything else. And, you know, just, just see how it plays out.
I, I'm, I'm not, and on top of it, it affects really higher price goods. So, you know, most
they're saying, well, it hurts the working man. Well, if the working man can't afford a new car
anyway, he's not paying a tariff. So I don't know. I just, I prefer to take, take the long
look and just see how it plays out and see if it actually does as much damage. And, you know,
and evidently, it hasn't caused inflation like a lot of people were predicting that would happen.
And again, that's because vehicles don't, you know, they're, they do make up a significant portion
of our trade and economy, but they're, they're not, they're not a biggest segment is like food,
fuel, that type of thing. So that, you know, the lowering of the gas prices is one of the things
that I think has had a huge impact on, on lowering inflation overall. So.
Yeah, my take on tariffs is the way that President Trump had kind of did them haphazardly. I was
concerned about cost rising on top of already expensive vehicles, particularly because even
vehicles that are built in the States use parts that are often built overseas. Right. Or sometimes
certain vehicles cross borders as they're being produced. I do think we have not quite seen as
much impact as we thought we're going to see, in part because it takes time. And I think automakers
may be willing to eat cost of at least for a little while. It takes time before those costs
really start trickling down to consumers. But I also think Trump has, he's, he's backed off in
more than a few cases where, where he upset one of our trading partners and he, he, he lowered the
tariff or even in some cases, reversing or moved it. So I think that's one reason why we've not seen
some of the darker scenarios is because he didn't stick with his plan. He backed off.
Right. I think it's part of it. And I think, you know, to me, and I'm not an economics major,
to me, tariffs, from what I understand from those who are better at economics than I am,
tariffs are a targeted tool and can work really well when targeted narrowly. But what President
Trump was trying to do was, was too broad. And that's when you start seeing consumers facing
pain. And I think certain things that I buy, I've noticed the price of coffee has gone up.
I use, some people are going to hate me for this, but I use a currig for most of my morning coffee.
I don't go to Starbucks because it's a little pricey. I go occasionally. There's one, two blocks
away, but I'm not very good at drip coffee making. I just never make it. It doesn't taste really good
when I make it. And I don't have room in my kitchen for a fancy, for a really fancy press or
espresso setup or anything like that. So I just use a currig. It's simple and quick.
And it's, it's foolproof. And I noticed that the K cut prices jumped by five or six bucks a box
when we put the tariffs in place. So that's a long way of saying that, you know, if you, if you
don't aim tariffs precisely, you can really do some damage to your consumers because they have to
eat the costs, you know, that the importers aren't going to pay or the companies that are importing
and probably aren't going to pay. But I think with the automotive industry, it's been far,
it's been a little more mixed, which is good and bad. It's, it's, I would prefer to be no tariffs
that raises the costs, but it's also not been quite as bad as we initially feared. Again, in
part because President Trump backed off and in part because, you know, some of the automakers
have adjusted production. And I'm with you in that I would prefer to see more production of
vehicles in the States. Now, as someone who leans a little bit left politically, it's a bit
unfortunate that most of the Southern plants are not union, although Nissan will happily tell you
that they pay just as well as union employees, union plants do. And I don't, you know, I don't
know if that's, if that's corporate, um, I don't know if it's true or if it's just corporate,
you know, trying to propaganda to try and stay non-union because it costs them a little bit
less. Obviously, Chattanooga has been unionized over and over the Volkswagen plant there. So
right, right. I prefer seeing a little more, more union, although unions can also overreach and
ask for too much and drive up costs. So there's, there's that, but, and I think anyone, I think,
unless you're blindly pro union, you have to announce that. So I think I would like to see
more restoring of, of, of automakers or excuse me, a vehicle production, but I also understand
when you can build a car cheaper in Mexico, I get it. You know, I understand that. Right, right,
right. And I, and I think you're, you're absolutely right there, but I, you know,
a lot of the, um, offshoring of jobs actually came out of the big three, you know, and I,
I think that that's one of the things that I'm hoping that we, we see, um, some manufacturing,
you know, I think Stellanus is bringing back some truck production and stuff from Mexico
to, uh, the Detroit area, which is good, you know, and I, again, that the fact that vehicles
are being built here that we drive, you know, uh, it's a, is a good thing. And that even foreign
manufacturers, even if they're not unionized, they are providing jobs and they are building
vehicles here in the U S rather than just, uh, importing them. So yeah, and I think that's a
good thing. Yeah. It's very possible that our American automakers went overseas because unions
got too expensive. It's certainly possible. So yeah, yeah, let's, let's shift away from the more
serious economic talk and spend our last few minutes. I don't know how much time we have. I'm
waiting. We probably only have about 10 or 15 minutes. Um, I'd like to hear, you know,
so road and track has been around for a long time. You were with a magazine for quite some time.
If you have any just, I always love the goofy behind the scenes stuff and maybe just me personally,
there's a famous car and driver story where they went to Mexico test vehicles and it became an
adventure. There was another gentleman who crashed a vehicle, uh, VIR and it was a race car. This was
probably the 1960s or 70s and he wrote about it for, for car driver and the way he wrote it was he
compared it to a famous railroad crash that had happened nearby. And so that was a fun story to
read. Um, you know, stuff like that, stuff like that doesn't happen as much anymore. It just,
the world has changed and some of the more, doesn't really, doesn't happen the way it used to. So I'd
love some of the, some of the more fun adventures you had while you were working there.
I think, you know, there, there are a lot of, there, it was fun. It was one of the best jobs I've,
I ever had. And I think that really crazy stuff that went on like in the 70s, like a car and driver
and stuff and, and early 80s where, um, we, when I was there, we kind of, Tom Bryant was the adult
in the room when I worked for him. So we didn't, we didn't really abuse cars like quite as much as
they did. So our, our, um, our, the things that we did with road tests and things like that weren't
as crazy. The one thing that we did do though is we always had fun with the April Fools edition
where we would do everything. We would, we would test, uh, one year we did food trucks. That was,
that was hilarious because we tested the food out and then we actually took one of the trucks to
El Toro and put a fifth wheel on it. And you know, um, uh, one time we remember the little
petty cabs we once did. We once did, um, uh, a, uh, test of the petty cabs and we had two guys kind
of, you know, like a drag race kind of thing. And, and that was fun. So we, you know, we, we did like,
you know, uh, uh, doing fun, fun things like that. I'll tell you one guy I, I absolutely loved working
with was Peter Egan. And he, he has a way, uh, a touch of writing, uh, just that resonates with
so many different people in the way stories would come about with him were hilarious. I mean, I,
I saw the movie, uh, Public Enemy and I had read the book about John Dillinger. And so I'm talking
to Peter one day and I said, yeah, did you see, and he says, Oh yeah, yeah. And he goes, yeah, you
know, they, they had that big shoot out, out, out of Rhinelander. So this is typical Peter. He
goes out, he finds a model A Ford. He kind of fixes it up. And then he retraces John Dillinger's
drive during this whole thing and writes this fabulous story about it. But he always gets like
a car to do it with that. One of his great stories was, uh, Hank Williams last drive where
Hank Williams was riding around in this Cadillac in the South before he passed away. And Peter
found the Cadillac and went driving to the same places and all that other stuff. And I, I, I,
that kind of journalism really resonated with people. And I really miss that now.
I do too. Yeah. About the buff books and about, you know, the internet has really changed everything.
There just doesn't seem to be the luxury to do that kind of writing and stories anymore.
And I really miss that. Yeah. Yeah. I do too, for sure. Um, Peter was, I don't know if he's
still writing. I don't know. Yes. As a matter of fact, he, he just published a book called Landings
in America and this book took him 40 years to write when he was living in California in 1987.
He and his wife, Barb bought a Piper Cub and they flew it cross country. They flew from,
from California all the way to Florida. Peter's dad was living at the time. They saw him there.
They flew up to Wisconsin where they were both from and they flew back and he, he wanted to write
this book. He never got around to doing it. And he finally wrote the book and he got published by
Octane. It's called Landings in America. It's wonderful. And it has all these little stories
about this cross country trip. And I told him, I said, you know, it's good thing you waited 40 years
to write this book because now you can tell the rest of the story because he talks about
people he met along the way. And he gives an update of, of, of whatever became of them. So
we'll end it there. But I was going to say that Peter Egan was
one of my inspirations growing up along with John Phillips from Car and Driver.
John Phillips is great too. Yeah, I love John. Yeah.
I've met John in passing once at an auto show briefly, briefly spoke. I've never met Peter.
I know he doesn't live super far from here. He's probably a couple hours away somewhere.
Yeah, no Madison. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know exactly where he lives and nor do I want to give away his
publicly. But you know, I didn't want to be an automobile journalist initially when I was younger.
I wanted to be a sportswriter. That was my thing. But I did, I did spend a lot of time
reading Car and Driver and, and road and track growing up and as well as
motor trend and to a lesser extent automobile. I didn't read as much for whatever reason.
I didn't come across by desk as much and probably didn't read the great David E.
Davis as much as I probably should have. But a brocky eighths, John Phillips,
Patrick Bedard and Peter Egan. Those are all opinion gentlemen. They were the first
people I read when the magazine came in the mail or when I picked them up for newsstand.
Before I read a car review, before I read the letter from the editor, before I write any letters
to the editor, you know, before I read anything else, any future stories, it was the opinions.
And sometimes I agree with them. Sometimes I didn't. They were, you know, at the time,
I probably agree with them more than I do now because I was younger and a little more easily
influenced. And now, like, now I think critically through things. And well, you've been doing
the yeah, I just think you're saying you're in the business now, Tim. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
a lot of it was when you're when you're really young, you people who influence you, you don't
always, you don't always think critically about their arguments. And as you get a little older,
you tear more of them apart. But yeah, they were they were they were all the writers who sort of
inspired me to be a writer in a way. And that was one of the great things about being an editor
was working with people like that. I mean, one of my favorite people I worked with was
Denise McCluggage. And back when I was at auto week, she had she had written a story.
And I had edited it. And she sent me the nicest note back. She says, I don't know how you shorten
my story. I read it again. I don't know what you took out. But it's shorter and fit in the space
that you, you know, and I thought, wow, that's really a tribute, you know, from her was that made
my day. And I loved working with her. And the other person I really miss a lot is Jean Jennings.
She was groundbreaking and hilarious, and just really a great writer. And, you know,
we need more characters like that in the business and a place for them to express themselves.
For sure. Well, we have to end it there. We only have about a minute left. So Matt,
please remind us one more time the title of your book.
My book is Mercedes AMG race bred performance. You can find it on Amazon. You can check out my
website, tightwadgarage.com. It's, it's, you know, it's kind of about I realized that when I when I
went to buy my own car, that I'm a tightwad, I've always had like four cylinder engines, manual
transmissions, lower trim levels, because I got to drive all the other cars. So,
you know, I thought, why should I overspend on my own car? So yeah, for sure. All right. So we
have to wrap this up. So we've been with automotive journalist, Matt DeLorenzo. Thank you, Matt. So
much for your time. Much appreciated here on this week's Truth About Cars podcast. Thank you, Tim.
I really enjoy the truth about cars. It's one of my go to websites. Thanks again. I'm really happy to
be here.
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Here on the Truth About Cars podcast, every week we talk about the stuff that we use
in our homes, in our cars and on our cars, cleaning products, tools, and the like. And we do that
just about every week with TTAC contributor Matthew Guy. Matthew, how are you doing today?
Pretty good, Tim. How are you doing?
I am well. So we were discussing, we discussed last week exterior cleaners and now we're talking or
basically things to prevent your car from water spotting it for a car wash. And now we're discussing
interior cleaners. Is that correct? That's right. And we just thought it would be a good idea to
follow up last week with this because spring is around the corner. Maybe it's arrived in your
area, wherever you're listening from. And it's a really good time to get some of the winter gunk
out of your car that has accumulated over the last couple of months, right?
So there's all kinds of different products out there. We talked last week about how specific
exterior made for car cleaners are really important, especially when you're washing your car.
So it doesn't impact the paint. And that is true to a lesser extent with the interior of your car
because there are some specific compounds that are on the surfaces of your car's
dashboard and upholstery and things like that. For sure, right? So there are definitely some
things that we like. But if you are definitely on a budget, you don't need to overspend on window
cleaner. You can use Windex if you've got it at home, for example, right? Right. Just recognizing
that everyone's on a budget and money is hard to come by these days. But there are some really,
really cool interior car cleaning products that you can buy. And I mean, you can get them off eBay,
you can get them off, you know, that type of site. And I have always gravitated towards the
Chemical Guys brand of car cleaners, both for inside and out, generally because, I mean,
they started off as sort of almost like a small company, Renegade and doing something that was
a little bit different than some other companies. But they have grown into a full, whole host of
different products that you can buy right now. I think they're coming out of winter. It's a really
good idea to buy some stuff for your floor mats, for your carpet and things like that. Because if
you live in a place where you did get a lot of snow, where you had some road salt, that type of
crud is going to stick around and it's really going to impact like how the life of your carpets
and how they wear. So get that stuff out as quickly as you can. Chemical Guys, for example,
has like some renewable mat renews, what it's called, for floor mat protector. And it comes
with a stiff brush. So that's really good for getting into those tight corners. They also have
a lot of cleaners for your carpet as well. There's one that they don't sell that I do recommend from
like a, say like a McGuire's or an Armoral comes in a can and it's a foam spray. And it comes with
a brush that's built into the top of the can. And that allows you to really scrub at those carpets
really, really hard in order to get the salt remover or to get the salt out, sorry, in order
to remove the salt from your carpets. So I recommend, you know, invest in a little bit of your money
into that might be 10 bucks, but I feel it's totally worth it. Yeah, and you can find this stuff on
eBay Motors, you sure can. Along with, you know, some other products as well, there's something
that Chemical Guys has, they have like a quote unquote, basic package right for basic interior
clean that comes with a cleaner and a protectant, which is fairly standard, comes with like a premium
air freshener and older neutralizer for getting rid of all that type of stuff and a few cloths.
That's the basic stuff, but it also comes with a couple of cans of what they call sticky icky.
And if you're not familiar with the, with the name Snoop Dogg can school you on that. But yeah,
yeah, for sure. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? But this is a cleaning gel and I used to think
it was super gross, but it's a really, really not having used it, it's a really good product.
And it is just, I don't know, it's about 3.5 ounces, I guess, maybe less than five ounces for
sure in a little can. And you take it out and it's almost like silly putty. And what it's designed
to do is you can press it into spaces like the cup holder or down in the cracks, you know,
off your dashboard, along the vents and stuff like that, where stuff gets that's really,
really hard to get out, especially in the cup holders. And this stuff is designed to pick
those, you know, pick up that crap and then just stick into the gel. So there's a couple of different
ways to use it. You can rip this stuff apart, the sticky icky, you can rip it apart and then press
it into the cup holders and then bunch of peeled out and you've gotten all the crap out, you can
just throw it away. You can also knead it back into, you know, into forms that you can reuse it.
So it's not a one and done. So it's not super wasteful either. And it does a really good
job of getting all the crumbs and crud and all that stuff out of places like cup holders that
are generally super hard to keep clean. So I like it. I recommend it. There's from a whole bunch of
different companies that you can find on eBay, but chemical guys, their stuff is called sticky icky.
So I mean, that's again, I'm just buying the marketing at that point, but it does actually
work. So it's like a moldable shape, sticky surface, pick up dirt and debris from hard to reach
places. Totally recommend. Yeah. And what about like leather? Any leather cleaners or dashboard
cleaners you want to talk about? That's a really good point because there are some, there's two
different things. If you've got leather seats, there's a leather, there are some leather cleaners.
And again, from this same brand chemical guys, I mean, they've got all this type of stuff,
but there are also other brands out there. But start with a leather cleaner, which will probably be
a light spray, just as if you are, I don't know, cleaning windows, right? So it'll be,
it'll be a spray type. So start with that. Use a brush that is appropriate for the surface.
Don't use something that is too abrasive because you'll damage your leather. Yet don't use something
that's too soft, right? So save that for the outside of your car. Use some typical rags and
things of that nature with the leather cleaner. First, after you've done that, use some leather
conditioner. And that stuff will be a little bit thicker. It'll almost be like, not quite actual.
Exactly, exactly, right? And it'll have the consistency of toothpaste gel, that type of stuff.
And then you'll be able to work that into the leather. Sometimes some good products,
they'll come with an applicator. And if you don't have some of that, just find or buy some,
you know, sponge or something along those lines. And if you don't have it, just use a rag,
but make sure to work that leather conditioner into that upholstery. And you're exactly right.
I'm so glad you brought it up because it really does work. And it really does,
almost like conditioning an old baseball mitt, right? Stuff,
leather, especially if it's genuine leather, is going to wear
to a certain extent. And starting with a good leather cleaner and then progressing to the
leather conditioner is totally worth the effort. Go ahead and do it. Invest the money,
invest the time, and your seats will last a lot longer than if you just let them dry and crack up.
Yeah, yeah. I didn't quite catch it. You mentioned dashboards in there too?
Yeah, dashboard stuff. Sometimes you'll have these quote-unquote total interior cleaner and
protectants. And I do find that some of those all-purpose interior cleaners are really good
for dashboards because I often find, because you and I drive different cars just about every week,
for our jobs. And some dashboards are a little bit
spongier for lack of a better term. And some of the rags that I have tend to catch
on those materials, as opposed to hard plastics. So a lot of times I find that it's the cloth that
I'm using affects the cleaning performance of the product that I'm using more so than the product
itself. So I do have a couple of favorites, just total interior cleaners and protectants.
And all in one is great. You don't need to armor all that to death anymore. And I know that I use
that as a verb, but that is also a brand. But sometimes if you see that really, really shiny
something, you've all walked into used car dealerships and everything is shiny, right?
Everything is just absolutely armor all to death. And you don't need to go to that extent anymore in
order to get a nice shine and in order to get a good clean for your car. And I just really
recommend this type of stuff because I enjoy cleaning a car. I find that it's the old joke
that a clean car runs better. I know it doesn't, but it just feels good to have a clean car,
especially after all winter. So head ahead over to eBay, find some of your favorite products over
there, you know, that we've talked about today, whatever the brand might be, and have your ride
nice and shiny for on the inside as well for spring that's coming up. Yeah. Yeah. And again,
we can, you can find all these detailing products on email motors and speaking of eBay motors,
we thank them for bringing the stuff we use segment to you. So Matthew, thank you so much
for your time here on this week's stuff we use for real. Thanks very much for having me. This
message comes from eBay. Hey, the worst part about loving cars might just be buying them and all the
parts from Toyota's to Aston Martin's eBay has thousands of cars and the largest online selection
of vehicle parts and accessories. eBay things people love. If you like what you hear on the
T tech podcast, please go ahead and leave us a review. You can also find us online at ttech.com
that is ttac.com or the truth about cars all spelled out.com. We are your home for car reviews,
car news, opinions and so so much more. Just about every week on the truth about cars podcast,
we discuss NASCAR and what's happening on track off track and those sorts of things.
Usually we have T tech contributor Matthew guy with us with me, Tim Healy to discuss that but
Matthew is traveling. So he was unavailable to talk NASCAR this week. So I will be keeping it
short and sweet and solo just a few thoughts that I had watching the race at Darlington,
the Goodyear 400 at Darlington, South Carolina this past week. I'm not going to go too much into
the on track stuff because outside of Tyler Redick dominating the race and winning by over five
seconds there's not really a ton to go into other than maybe Denny Hamlin driving like a jerk and
pushing I believe it was Eric Jones just driving into the back of him and pushing him off the track
which I thought was kind of a jerk move that was early in the race but it was you know pretty clean
race were relatively low in cautions. I think even the Jones incident he didn't draw a caution as
he was able to avoid any serious damage on that one but there were only a handful of cautions
I think maybe one or two outside of the stage breaks. You know again kind of like the week before
fairly straightforward race Tyler Redick is now I think four or six or something like that. So
yeah I think four or six sounds right. So he's obviously dominating the first part of the season
and it's it's been fun to watch although it's probably frustrating for some of the other drivers who
who've had some good who've had some shots at winning and then there are other drivers like
Bubba Wallace who might be frustrated by not finishing the race. Wallace had a good run and
did not finish but yeah on track the story of course is Tyler Redick's domination and we'll
see if that continues at Martinsville next week but to me the the bigger story was two things that
I think any NASCAR fan can really appreciate especially if you are over the age of 40 or even
35 the throwbacks to the paint schemes which we see at Darlington every year in the spring race
once again just killer the the Wally Dahlinbuck as as driving for Richard Petty scheme was
was good and we had a few other throwbacks that were really great and then the other thing that
really stuck out to me as a fan as someone who is someone who grew up watching the sport
really in the 2000s and maybe a little bit in the 90s the return of Daryl Waltrip ever so briefly
to the broadcast booth he was there as part of NASCAR's Hall of Fame weekend and we all we all
know that the great DW you know it's kind of been a way of the sport for a while I don't really know
why if he's had any health issues or anything like that but he he certainly seemed quite on the
ball and quite sharp when when being interviewed and he was on the gridwalk with with Michael
Waltrip and he's only 79 years old so he's not you know crazy old or anything although he's up
you know obviously on the higher end of the age spectrum but you know old DW he was he was and I
said I mean old in the good old way and not the old way DW was was part of the broadcast for the first
I'm not sure how many laps he decided he was just done with it before the first commercial break but
he called the start of the race with the old boogity boogity boogity and that was a lot of fun
and again he was part of the gridwalk and he was he was really well spoken when when interviewed
by current broadcaster Mike Joy as well as the the rest of the broadcast team during the first
part of the race kind of just really well spoken about how he felt about Darlington as a racetrack
and how he felt with the current drivers and the current setups of of the next-gen cars and all
that sort of stuff so you know so as I was saying DW Derral Waltrip retired only six years ago and
again it sounds like it sounds like that was not the only go but it feels like it was quite some
time but anyway he he says that NASCAR so he was quoted as saying NASCAR is in transition he said
he doesn't like the stages basically he says they've all these different stages it's a little
different to me I'm not sure like the way it is but I watch that's about it so it sounds like
DW agrees with Matthew Guy who again is not here this week traveling and I will pick Matthew's
brain the next time we talk NASCAR um it sounds like he is I'm not a fan of the stage racing which
we know Matthew has is generally not been a fan of and I myself have been mixed feelings about I uh
I understand the logic behind it but don't necessarily love it you know I get the idea of
getting the cars to bunch back up and keep one driver from walking away with the race but then
again you know we have stage racing and Tyler Redick one by five seconds on on uh Sunday so
you know even with stage racing one guy can you can bring the field back together but if one guy
is having a dominant day whether it's on the track or through pit strategy or both you know you
bring the field back together for stage three but then maybe 10 20 laps later that guy is back out
to a big lead so um you know it's interesting to hear somebody with DW's influence uh opine on stage
racing but at the same time you always have to wonder too he's a driver an older driver is there
a resistance to change because it's just not the way it was done when he was when he was driving or
is it really a dislike a legit critique of of NASCAR or a little bit of both so but again otherwise
I was really happy to see DW back on track and um you know we're not going to spend a lot of time
on NASCAR this week just because I'm doing it solo and it's always easier to bounce ideas off Matthew
and have his thoughts so again I wanted just to check in briefly and and give a quick a quick
thought a quick take on my feelings about Darlington this particular race and again I think more so
than what we saw uh in terms of who won or who lost I think the two big takeaways from from
Darlington this week was the annual throwback paint scheme uh scenario and I I encourage our
listeners to go to um go to NASCAR.com or maybe jayski.com and look at the throwbacks from
this past race and then I would also uh if you had if you didn't have a chance to watch the race
but maybe you DVR'd it get to your DVR before the next one and and check out uh DW's gridwalk
with Michael Waldtrip and then his early lap announcing the first 10 to 15 laps so anyway I
think um you know that we can go ahead and wrap our NASCAR chat there this week just keep it nice
and short and sweet and uh we'll be back with martinsville talk and Matthew Guy I believe
will be back next week so we'll be talking martinsville as we roll along into the from the spring to
the late spring part of the season and really summers not going at the door I mean I guess we
have April and May or technically spring months but um hopefully we get some warmer weather for
for those of us who are fans of course the drivers have had warmer weather and that actually leads
me to one other thing I wanted to talk about that I almost forgot I'll make this quick before I wrap
speaking in Tyler Rudick in a dominant race I had almost forgotten about the problems he had with
heat and air conditioning in his car so as as regular NASCAR fans would know NASCAR cup cars
don't have air conditioning the way our streetcars do but they have an auxiliary battery in the cockpit
and they can that can run a a cool suit it can run the helmet cooler and and Rudick had issues
with that in the first few laps of the race and it was actually pretty hot Darlington I didn't catch
the ambient temperature or the track temperature but it was a nice sunny day and it was according to
the broadcast it was warm and the fans were in short sleeves so it was definitely warmer than it
is here in Chicago where I sit where it's still winter still hanging on but um anyway so Rudick
not only did he dominate him by five seconds but he he overcame the issues early with his
lack of air conditioning so to speak I'm using air quotes obviously you can't see that but
it's not air conditioning like we have in our cars where you press a button and it's set to 68
degrees and it's uncomfortable but it is they do have a battery they swapped out the battery I
believe NASCAR allowed it because I think there's a rule on that and I remember Larry McReynolds
saying in the broadcast that it was within the rules what what Rudick's team did but you know
again Rudick overcoming a cooling issue for keeping his body cool on a hot day so you know
once again not only is he dominating but he's he's overcoming obstacles so with that we'll
keep an eye on reddit going into Martinsville see if he can get five of seven that sounds insane
but I believe that is the correct number right now he stands at four of six with a shot at five
of seven so with that we will wrap our NASCAR chat for this week on the truth about cars podcast
and take a listen next week to hear about what happened at Martinsville
the cars you'll find that eBay are just different they come with a story that you can't wait to
share like this 1973 Dodge Charger on eBay that has been tucked away in an Arizona barn for over 40
years only 55,000 miles and somehow in great running order it even has a rare sunroof suddenly
a car that was hidden for decades is being delivered in just a few clicks with eBay's
secure purchase all the paperwork handled there are thousands of cars in eBay from
unique finds like the Pontiac Grand Prix SJ to daily drivers and now with a new way to buy them
eBay things people love that's all for this week's the truth about cars podcast I am Tim Healy the
managing editor and you can find us wherever you're podcast you can also find us online at
ttsc.com that's t-tech.com or the truth about cars all spelled out dot com we think Matt DeLorenzo
and Matthew Gaffer their time and Matt Poskey for editing most of all we thank you for listening
we'll see you next time
you
About this episode
Matt DiLorenzo breaks down the rise of AMG in his new book, Mercedes AMG: Race Bred Performance—how Offrecht and Melcher built a racing reputation, earned Mercedes’ attention, and eventually became the performance division. He then weighs the auto industry’s “weird times”: EVs aren’t a one-size replacement for ICE yet, with price and especially charging infrastructure holding adoption back, while Chinese EV competition is a bigger geopolitical than purely economic threat. The show also covers interior detailing tips (leather care, carpet salt removal, “sticky icky” gel) and a solo NASCAR recap of Darlington, highlighting Tyler Reddick’s dominance, throwback paint schemes, and Daryl Waltrip’s return to the booth.
Original notes
Hello and welcome to the Truth About Cars podcast! I am Tim Healey, the managing editor, and this week we talk with veteran automotive journalist Matt DeLorenzo about the state of the automotive industry.
We also get into a few war stories from DeLorenzo's time with the buff books, as well.
TTAC contributor Matthew Guy discusses interior cleaning products, and I recap the NASCAR race at Darlington.
You can find us wherever you get your podcasts or at TTAC.com. We thank Matt and Matthew for their time and Matt Posky for editing. Most of all, we thank you for listening.
We'll see you next time!
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