TTAC At The 2026 Detroit Auto Show

Hello, and welcome to the Truth About Cars podcast. I am Tim Healy, the managing editor, and this

week we are live-ish at the 2026 Detroit Auto Show. We have a lot to cover this week. D-Tech

contributor Matthew Guy and I discussed NASCAR's new playoff format, as well as cabin filters

for stuff we use, and Mr. Guy and I also discussed the Detroit Auto Show. We also get another

look at Detroit from John Vincent from U.S. News and we'll report. But first, a word from

our sponsor, Ebay Motors. Ebay has reinvented vehicle buying, from click to curb, everything's

covered. With their new secure purchase, Ebay isn't just where you find your car,

it's where you buy it, start to finish. Title, financing, registration, delivery,

it's all built in. And eligible vehicle purchases are backed by up to $100,000 in protection.

This is what modern car buying looks like. Get your next ride on Ebay. Ebay, things people

love. Secure purchase is powered by CarModular Services, LLC, and Ebay subsidiary.

Here on the Truth About Cars podcast, we are at the Detroit Auto Show. The 2026 Detroit

Auto Show are also known as the 2026 North American International Auto Show. It's

T-Tech contributor Matthew Guy with me. Matthew, how are you doing today?

Doing pretty good, Tim. How about you?

I'm doing well.

It's snowy Detroit.

It is snowy Detroit. It was not snowing this morning. It is coming down pretty hard right

now. So the Detroit Auto Show this year is unique in that there are not many product

unveils. There is the new Bronco RTR, which you and I both saw in person. And that

is about it. We've also had a speech from, or kind of an interview from former transportation

secretary Pete Buttigieg. He didn't make a lot of news. So Matthew, I want to cut your

sense on what's going on on an auto show that doesn't really have much news.

An auto show that has autos, but I'm not sure how many are new. Yeah, because you're right,

Detroit always had, you know, we've had a bunch of posts on the site this week about

the big flashy reveals in the past, right? And that is something that is absent this year.

They kicked off with the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards this year. The

Dodge Charger six pack, one car of the year over the other two finalists, the Prelude and

the, what was the other one? The Prelude and the,

I don't recall the finalist. I took my head. It's all the winners were the Ford Maverick

Lobo, Hyundai Palisade and that's Charger. Yes. That's right. So I mean, the Palisade,

you've driven that too. Yeah, very good. That's a very, very good car. And the

Lobo, you've driven that as well? I've not. You haven't driven the Lobo?

Not the Lobo. I've driven many in Maverick, but not the Lobo. It's interesting with the Lobo because

they have enough, like with that twin clutch rear end in it. I mean, it is different experience than

any other Maverick, right? I mean, in terms of how it puts down the power when you're in that

Lobo mode, right? Which is kind of cool. So I like that. I thought that was kind of neat.

There are a bunch of, like you said, the RTR Bronco that's there. RTR has been made and

ready to rock with Von Gitton Jr. They've been making Broncos, are upfitting Broncos,

I guess for a while. And this is more of an official, quote, unquote, collab between them with

the RTR vehicles coming out of the factory, from what I understand. So that's a bit different than

before. No shortage of other vehicles here in terms of stuff that we saw perhaps last week.

Ram dropped that, the TRX with the 6.2 Supercharge, that means back again. And that's

here on the show floor. So those types, I mean, there's... You mentioned around EV.

Yes, that's right. So the RAM, I know, we know that they're coming out with the extended range

EV, right? With the 3.6 Pentastar under the hood that is not directly driving the wheels. It's

electric. And there's one of those on the show floor. And that's the first one I've seen in

person. Looks just like a normal RAM. And that's the point, I highly suspect, right? It has a

different lighting signature on the front, crawled up and under, has gear heads like

Osir want to do and saw the batteries underneath. I'm not sure how it's going to affect

the ground clearance with that. Interesting. Yeah, a lot about that. Right? If you're going to lose

an HSO ground clearance. Or if indeed, I mean, this did have an actual VIN. But of course,

there's a couple hundred of these, or a few dozen at least, running around Detroit right now,

under validation through Salinas employees. So I don't know if this is the final

permutation of it, if there's going to be more skid plates and stuff underneath. But

I hope it has a, I was going to say, I hope it has a skid plate. Exactly. For the battery. Yeah.

Right. So those types of things just to, just to guard against any sort of truck-like

activity that we hope people will put these things through. But how about you? I mean,

you've been here, you've been here to the show a lot more naiv. There are a lot more shows

than naiv. Yeah. So I've been to almost every year for the past 16 years. Obviously,

there was actually a COVID show because of in 2020, if I remember correctly,

the show would have been in January and when I'm ahead of COVID, I believe 21 might have

was canceled. I don't, because I think we were still in January 2020, 21 battling the pandemic.

That may have been the year they moved into the late summer. I'd have to go back and look

it up. I don't have my memories a little faulty there. But I've been coming to this show,

I may have missed one or two, just because maybe there was a year or two where I didn't

need to come. But it's different this year with, with only the RTR being the only

real product news. It's, it's weird not seeing, not running from press conference to press conference,

not seeing a huge amount of cars, the manufactured plates parked outside of the hall,

you know, having executives running back and forth. I still feel like there's stuff to do and

we're still busy. And I think there's still a reason for media to be here, even those,

even media like myself who don't live in Detroit, but it is different. And this is something

we've harped upon before in the site. And I will not belabor the point too much, but I think it's

because automakers discovered, they were starting to discover this before COVID and they think COVID

kind of forced it upon them. Automakers realized they can do an event randomly on a Tuesday

and invite media and dealer employees and all that and own the news cycle for a week.

Whereas when you've got 10 press conferences in a day and sites like T-Tac are posting every

half hour, every hour, you own the news cycle for an hour. And then, and then you're now you're

not down the page on the websites and you're, so it's a little different. I still think we're

going to see, I also think part of the thing is we're just in the middle of some mid-cycle

refreshes right now. I think we'll see more product in New York, maybe even next month in

Chicago in New York, I think for sure. So, you know, I don't want to sit here and say

auto shows are dead. Certainly consumer days aren't dead. Media days are different than

consumer days and press preview may go away, but people who live in Detroit, the Detroit area

are still going to come to the show and spend money and go see cars. There's not much else

to do in the Midwest in January. It's cold and so there's something to do that's indoors and

can occupy two or three hours of your time. There's stuff to do for, if you have young

children, there's always stuff to do for young children. And if you're a car buyer,

but you won't be bothered by pushy sales people, an auto show is a great way to do it.

Go check out all the cars and if you're a car enthusiast, you know, that's one way

to see all the cars off close to driving from dealership to dealership on a Sunday.

It's a great way to see cars are close for 20 bucks or whatever the price of a ticket is.

So I think consumer days are going to be fine. It's just, it's hard for us to figure out what

to talk about when there's not a new product. It's a little different, but you know,

you and I are here for two days and there's still stuff to check out and stuff to talk about.

And Pete Buttigieg, the former secretary of taxation was here and he didn't break a lot of news,

but it was good to hear his thoughts on the industry. Potential future governor,

maybe not governor, but do be an editorial candidate of Michigan because he lives in

Michigan now. Potential future candidate for the United States president or senate like that

is a young man. He could run for anything in the future. So good to hear his thoughts on

transit, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, whether you like him or not,

it's good to have at least know what he feels because he's going to be potentially in a position

of power again. So that was interesting to have someone of his stature be here.

And it speaks to the still relative that these shows are very relevant,

you know, even if it's not, you know, a big crashing through the glass reveal after reveal

those type of things. Yeah, I missed those days. I wasn't here for that one, but I missed

those days. But you're right when you talk about the news cycle, right? I mean, back then,

I mean, there was no internet, right? I mean, then people wrote about stuff and it came out in the

paper today. So the news cycle was completely different than it is now. So it makes sense

for what the automakers have figured out that, you know, we won't have a dozen press conferences

one right after the other on a single day. But even when I started, my first job was

online journalism for automotive. And it wasn't the place I worked wasn't turning news as

fast. It wasn't daily. And the website was probably a little website is mostly car reviews,

and we didn't really have a news section. But we're still watching the news, obviously,

because we had to know what was being launched. And I'm trying to figure out a phrase is

we were aware of what Solantis was doing with the cattle in the streets and all that

sort of stuff got them attention. Even if you weren't writing a story about it

specifically, that stuff still got attention, even in the online era. So it's not just

the shift from print to internet. It's it's the I think it's a shift from being a person to zoom.

It's the it's a shift from being able to do something where everyone kind of has to be there

to really understand it, right, or they can watch from home. I think that's the biggest difference.

Yeah. And early internet didn't have the capacity for those kind of videos because we didn't have

the speed bandwidth speed. You're right. That just simply didn't exist even even 10 years

ago. That didn't exist. Not nearly as not nearly as good as it existed. It wasn't as good.

Hey, we were definitely a lot more pixelated 10 years ago than we are. A lot more buffering,

a lot more. Yeah, I remember the job I worked 10 years ago. And we I did work for home a little

bit during that job. We did occasional occasional zooms with someone who worked at the company,

maybe another part of the country or or whatever. And you're right, a lot of buffering. And

it often was frustrating. Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, those types of things,

just their hallmarks of the show. So glad to be here is good. There's lots to lots here to see,

lots here to do. So it's definitely valuable and worth one's time to come out and see the show.

And it's the background noise. And I do apologize for our listeners for any noise that has

cut us off. We've done our best to be in a quiet spot, but there's no such thing in the

convention center. But speaks to the number of people that I say that's that's exactly it.

Even on a slow quote unquote, you read my mind, even even on a slow year,

there's still a lot going on and a lot of people wandering around.

Seeing a lot of unfamiliar faces that are not medium. So I think there's probably a decent

corporate or dealer presence here as well, which might not have had every other year. So

that's interesting to me too. Although I think in Detroit, that's always a little

unique because so many cars are built here. There probably is a lot of access from

assembly line workers. Yes, you're right. And then I've noticed a few

motorsport accounts like people who run motorsport.

And not just powersport, but motorsport. So we're racing. So whether it's F1,

because Cadillac is over there with an F1 display, Ford's going to be talking to a lot of the F1

stuff. And Dodge is over there. I'm sorry, Ram is over there with their truck. That's going to

be at the track in February. Which we'll be talking about in our NASCAR segment in the

future. The same was self promotion. Do tune in. But yeah, so that stuff is cool. So I have

noticed a few motorsports personalities around the room as well, which is neat.

Very interesting. And to our listeners, we should touch upon this briefly. The podcast will be

live by the time this happens. So I don't believe there's any embargoes. I don't believe

we're breaking any of there are. Ford has got some F1 news that they'll be sharing.

After we record this, but before this, so goes live. So keep an eye on the T-TEC website.

It may already be on the website for this podcast. So yeah, obviously this is pre-recorded. So we are

a little bit, timing is a little bit off, but keep an eye out for Ford F1 news as well.

Coming to you from the future in Detroit. We know what's going to happen.

Is it back to the future or forward to the future? I don't know.

Just get me the DeLorean.

Yeah. In fact, I'll let me see DeLorean here on the show floor. Maybe I'll drive off in one.

So with that Matthew, let's see if anything else to add. I think we should go ahead and wrap this

second here on the truth about cars podcast. Sounds great. Thanks for wrapping me up.

eBay has reinvented vehicle buying from click to curb. Everything's covered.

It's all thanks to their new secure purchase. Ever try to buy a car and end up in a parking

lot with a stranger and some blind trust? Or spend half the day in a dealership talking

to pushy salespeople and signing paperwork? Or maybe worst of all, wait for hours of

the DMV just to transfer the title. That era is over. For years, eBay has been the go to for

gear heads collectors and DIYers. Because whatever you're into from classics to SUVs and trucks to

imports, eBay's got it. And now with secure purchase, eBay isn't just where you find your

next ride. It's where you can buy it start to finish. Sellers and titles are verified.

Paperwork is handled by experts and payments are traceable and digital.

So you know exactly who you're dealing with exactly what you're getting.

Plus, you can finance, insure and register your vehicle all in place. No more hours of the

dealership. No more trips to the DMV. Get your vehicle plates and paperwork shipped to your door

ready to drive. And it's all part of one seamless process designed to feel as easy as buying

anything else online. And eligible vehicles purchased on eBay are backed by up to $100,000

and purchase protection. Thinking about selling your ride, secure purchase makes that simple

because you know your buyer and their funds are verified. If you still own your car,

the financing payoff is fully integrated so you're not chasing paperwork or waiting on checks to clear.

And with secure purchase, you get paid fast. And you're not going to be stuck chasing no

shows or answering the fifth still available message. This is what modern car buying looks like.

Skip the DMV. Skip the sketchy meetups. Buy it on eBay. eBay. Things people love.

Secure purchase is powered by Carmel Dealer Services, LLC, and eBay subsidiary.

Here on the Truth About Cars podcast, we are at the 2026 North American

International Auto Show, also known as the 2026 Detroit Auto Show. And we'll have two

perspectives on the auto show this year. So we'll have one from the internal side where

Matthew Guy and I kind of put our heads together and go all TTAC on it. And we also have

John Vincent from US News in a world report, senior director of vehicle testing, senior editor of

vehicle testing. Yes, yes. So John, what do you think of the, for those who can't see,

and obviously most people can't see because we're audio, I'm doing air quotes. What do you think

of the auto show? Well, it's a pretty quiet auto show. Yeah. A whole lot more like a regional

auto show than it used to be. But you know, auto shows have changed. And now today's auto

show is more for the consumer than it is for the journalists who used to cover all of them all.

Yeah, that's what I've been saying for three or four years now on TTAC, whenever we do an auto show

recap. We didn't have one big product available last night, though, the Bronco RTR. Can you talk

about the, this kind of desert running off-road trim that is just a little below the Raptor?

Yeah, it's a pretty interesting vehicle. It's actually, you know,

in a partnership with an off-road racer. So they're getting some credentials there.

It's not, like you said, it's not quite a Raptor, but it's not very far short.

Just expands that Bronco lineup to more and more customers.

Yeah, it feels like they're trying to get every off-road niche they can.

You know, they're competing with Jeep, and Jeep is already in every off-road niche, so,

you know, they're catching up.

Yeah, I think the other big news, at least so far as of the time that we record this, and

things may change between now and the end of the show, but the other big news is Pete

Buttigieg, the former transportation, I probably put your name, the former, the former transportation

Buttigieg, Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary of the United States,

spoke, and I don't know if he made any big news, but you were there. Did you catch

anything that really stuck out to you? I just go with the Mayor Pete, so I don't have to try

and pronounce the last name. He did say some interesting things about what happens in the

next four years after the Trump administration, and how, you know, everything is not going to

swing like a pendulum. It's going to be a new start. Yeah, I caught that too. Go ahead, I'm sorry.

It's going to be a new start, and taking off from where the Trump administration ends,

and moving forward, not rolling back everything that's been done because that creates too

much turmoil in the industry. Yeah, and it also takes us back to a place he made a good

point at, just because it would, even if you don't like what Trump has done, and he

said he didn't, it would take you back four or five years or even 10 years,

and that still doesn't really move you forward. So it might be better than what it is now,

but it's not better than it could be. Correct, and he also talked a lot about how

this pause on EVs, especially, is going to put us further and further behind the

rest of the world. Yeah, that's a big point, especially with China

really poised to eat automakers lunch when it comes to EVs.

Yes, if they come into the United States, or we should say when they come to the United States,

they're going to be, they're going to get bigger head start by the day.

Yeah, and I think that's something that the current administration has dropped the ball on,

because for whatever reason, they just seem to want to push back on EVs. And I think,

like Mayor Pete said, automakers are still going to work on EVs, no matter what the

current administration wants to do, or regardless of who's actually in power.

Whether it's a Democrat or a Republican. Right, and you know, well, politicians tried to push EVs

maybe before they were quite ready. They needed to be pushed because that's what's going to get them

adopted. But the backlash and the political football that EVs have become is really disappointing

when anybody who's ever driven an EV knows that they're a better solution.

Yeah, in many cases, I would push back a little and say for

race track driving and telling you're better off with an ice at least for now.

That is true. But ask yourself this, do we have an ice vehicle that is the Swiss Army knife that

can do everything? We don't. Not very many now. I can't think of one. I'm hard-pressed as well,

yeah. And we're asking EVs to do that. Yeah, and speaking of EVs, one of my personal hobby

forces has been that the main thing, to me, there's three things holding back adoption.

One is fear of range and anxiety, which is getting reduced by the day as automakers get

better and better at producing higher-range EVs. The other thing is cost, MSRP. And that is going

down a little bit too as you get vehicles like the new Leaf and other more entry-level EVs.

They should be involved. They should be involved. The third thing is charging,

and that is still a problem, trying to find chargers that work. And many people can't

charge at home. They live in a multi-unit building, parked on the street, whatever.

And Buttigieg, basically, I'm sure I put your name again, basically said that the federal government

has to be involved in charging because developing better EVs and better EV batteries is mostly a

private sector thing. Mostly something automakers can do without or with very little federal

help. But charging has to have federal involvement. He didn't get specific,

and so I'm not quite sure what he meant specifically. But I think he made a good

point. I want to see what you thought about that. I agree. Charging is still a pain point,

especially if you're in multifamily housing. I think there's a fourth issue that needs to be

addressed as we move forward. And that is the existing dealer networks we have are not very

good at educating consumers on EVs. Yeah, that's not a federal issue, though.

Nope, that's not a federal issue, but it's something that needs to be addressed.

Yeah, and I also like where Buttigieg... I was just saying,

Mayer Pete, because he keeps screwing it up. Where Mayer Pete basically said,

he wants better trains and better train transit, at least in areas that are

urbanally dense enough to support it. But he also said, just because you want better trains

doesn't mean you're anti-car. And then in other parts of the world, there's a lively automotive

scene and a lively automotive market, and they also have bullet trains. And I was kind of like,

man, I drove from Chicago to Detroit in four and a half hours. I would love a bullet

train that got me hearing, too, you know? Absolutely. I live on the west coast where

we actually have decent train service. But decent is not European decent,

whereas it will get you there the same day. Yeah, it will not get you there for your

kind of client meet. Exactly. I could have taken Amtrak from Chicago to Detroit and

probably in two hours late. So that was a big thing with Mayer Pete. Is there now...

We're going to get away from Mayer Pete talk a little bit to finish off our segment.

What else from the show have you seen? I know there's been cars on the

floor that maybe haven't been seen elsewhere or haven't gotten a full press conference,

but they're on the floor. I have not seen it myself yet. I know a Ramcharger EV is out there.

There's some other new stuff out there. Anything you've seen on the show floor that you're like

really interested in? The Jeep Recons here, I was able to see it in Los Angeles,

but I was able to get much more close with it here. That's going to be a pretty

interesting vehicle for them. Yeah, absolutely. Big time for a Jeep.

It's also interesting to see the entire Cadillac lineup in the same place and see

just how far they've embraced EVs. I need to check out their booth because in LA,

they were sort of pushed onto a corner between the two show floors. So they have a big booth here.

They are right up front with their full lineup of EVs, and when you realize they have, what,

five of them now? Lyric, Optique, Escalade EV, the flagship that I'm blanking the name on,

the $300,000 car. Celestique? Celestique. I think I knew began to see it because

couldn't remember the name. Yeah. Yes, that's four right there.

And I think we missed one in there, Optique, Vistik. Vistik, that's it. Yes, Sam.

Yeah, I just drove the Lyric. It's very interesting. Lyric V. I wanted you to comment briefly on

who's not here. I've not seen Nissan Infinity. I've not seen any Asian automakers except

for Toyota. I've seen PR reps from some of them, but I've not seen stands.

And I've not seen really any European presence at all either.

I'm seeing some dealer presence. Subaru is here. I should say Subaru, I forgot.

Some dealer presence, not necessarily manufacturer-supported presence,

which kind of lends that thought that this is more of a regional show than a national show.

Yeah, that's kind of crazy. 15 years ago, this was the show. This was the show.

This is the one where you shut down streets and ran cattle if you were Chrysler.

Yeah. The old firehouse parties, which I've

heard stories. I'm a little too young to have attended one. For journalists,

you'd be used to come for a week. Now you're used to come for a day. Yeah, I used to come here.

I don't want to bore our listeners too much with Inside Baseball, but I used to come here on

Sunday and go home Wednesday or Thursday. Yeah, so it's crazy. Do you think that

the Detroit show will be like this in the future, or do you think there'll be a bounce

back next year? I think it's just the way that auto shows have gone. They're

consumers now, not us. Yeah, I think so too. Except for New York. I think New York because of the

non-New York media, the business media, and Javits being walkable from where their offices are.

I think New York is always going to be a powerful show. Yes, and I've heard that CES this year

was much less of an auto show than it's been. Yeah, I've never been to CES,

but I've heard that it was lower, and we didn't cover a ton of car content on T-Tac.

I mean, there was a lot of technology there that has to do with mobility,

but not a lot of sheet metal. Yeah. All right, John, is there anything else

you want to add about the Detroit Auto Show before we let you go?

Well, you may have heard that this morning we announced our NACA tour.

Yeah, we did. We did cover the T-Tac today. So go ahead and talk about the winners and the

finalists. Dodge Charger was the car of the year, beat out the Honda Prelude

and the Nissan Centra. All good contenders. I think the Prelude is pretty interesting,

but it scares people away. Sure. The Centra is also very good, but it competes in a tough market,

and it's up against vehicles like the Kia K4. Yeah. Some good competition.

Good competition. Trucks, Maverick Lobo, which is a really cool little street.

Yeah, I'm not driven like that. So street trucks used to be a big thing.

I remember. And it seems like the Lobo might be the truck that kicks

back into people's thinking. Interesting. And then Utility, which was by far the most

popular category, was the Hyundai Palisade. Hyundai Palisade, I've driven both the

gas only and the hybrid, and I think the hybrid is probably the best SUV you can buy today.

Wow. Strong statement. And what were the finalists in that category?

Beat out the Leason Gravity and the Nissan Leaf.

And what about the truck finalists? The truck, it was Ram 1500 Hemi and Ram 2500.

Excellent. Excellent. Thank you, John, so much for your time. I'm much appreciated.

And we're going to go ahead and wrap this segment from the Detroit Auto Show

Live-ish from the Detroit Auto Show on Truthwell Cars Podcast. Thanks, John.

Thank you. eBay has reinvented vehicle buying from click to curb. Everything's covered.

With their new secure purchase, eBay isn't just where you find your car.

It's where you buy it, start to finish. Title, financing, registration, delivery,

it's all built in. And eligible vehicle purchases are backed by up to $100,000 in protection.

This is what modern car buying looks like. Get your next ride on eBay.

eBay, things people love. Secure purchase is powered by Carmel Dealer Services,

LLC in the eBase of City area. Here on the Truthwell Cars Podcast,

we were always talking about the stuff that we use in our homes, in our cars,

and on our cars. And this segment is brought to you by eBay.

eBay has reinvented vehicle buying from click to curb. Everything's covered.

And so we talk about the stuff that we use with Matthew Guy, T-Tech contributor. Matthew,

how are you doing today? Hey, I'm doing pretty good, Tim. How are you?

I'm doing pretty well. So I understand we're talking about cabin air filters today.

Yeah. And it's something that I was just, you know, replacing a couple on a couple of

different cars over the weekend, right? Not the same car. So I got to see that

replacement process from a couple of different brands. And it's a filter, you know, a lot of us,

especially if we're just day to day with our cars using them as appliances, we might not

think of some of these replacement products that we need to put in our cars to make sure

that they run properly and give us the best experience while we're going down the road.

And probably one of the most forgotten ones is the cabin air filter. And what I'm talking

about is a lot of times you hear, oh, I need to change an air filter, you know, and you might get

that toss in with an oil change or something like that. If you go to a quickly place or

something like that. And that filter is generally under the hood. And it filters the air that goes

and that the engine uses to make power, right? So it filters the engine's air.

The one that we're talking about in this segment is your cabin air filter. So when you turn on

your air conditioning or you turn on your heating system in your car,

it's going to draw in a measure of fresh air under most circumstances from the outside.

And there's going to be a filter there, which allows, you know, just the car to scrub some

pollutants. And you know, if you're driving past something that doesn't smell very good,

your car will filter some of that. But like all filters, they don't last forever.

So it's a really good idea. I got one off eBay the other day for one of the vehicles

that I was working on. It was a Challenger. And then I picked one up

from a different source for an Elantra that I was working on. And both were pretty easy to

replace. I would argue that the Dodge was a little bit easier. You still had to go in

under the hood. A lot of cars, you can access these filters through the glove box, which is

a little bit interesting for someone who might be just getting into wrenching.

The cool thing is, is that there's all kinds of resources out there on YouTube and

making model specific forms and things like that. And this would be one of the,

probably along with the windshield wash that we talked about not too long ago,

this would probably be one of the easier things to replace if you're just getting into working

on cars. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And the cool thing about eBay is that they've got this

Perfect Fit program, and that allows you to buy something, buy a part off of that platform.

And it's a guaranteed fit once it gets to you. And if not, you can,

there are some different ways to get around that. But this Perfect Fit program is pretty cool that

it tries to guarantee that what you're going to get is going to fit.

Yeah. And fit is important with these things for sure. I mean, they're filters. Filters

need to fit. Otherwise, they don't really do their job.

No, there's an awful lot of air going around them instead of through them. And the one on the Challenger

was fine. It just looked a little bit dark, right? So it had been sucking in some dirty air.

But I remember changing one on the charger one time and it was all full of leaves and all kinds

of old stuff. So these, you think that they're not super important to the operation for your car?

And maybe in this case, it's not really directly affecting the operation of the car,

but it's certainly affecting your enjoyment of the car. And I think that it's important to follow

the replacement schedules that you can find in your owner's manual for sure.

Yeah, let me jump in there real quick. As a former dealership employee who worked in service,

yes, who tried to upsell cabin air filters and paid a bonus when that happened,

I would say to avoid being upsold unnecessarily. All right, so I'll make this quick,

but two things happen to the dealership. Some mechanics, not all, many mechanics are honest,

of course, and many service advisors are. The percentage of those who are dishonest is probably

smaller than we think because the people who are dishonest stick out. But there are some people

who try and upsell you when you don't need it because they're unethical. There's others who

just don't know. They think the filter is a little dirty and must be replaced when really

it's a filter. Filters are going to get a little bit dirty even if they're brand new. So

so you know, sometimes you just have a young mechanic, a green mechanic or a green

service advisor who's selling unnecessarily, or maybe they go by mileage and they don't even look

at the filter. They go out and manage the computer and they don't realize it's been

replaced at a different shop. So I've seen that. So to avoid being either unethically or unintentionally

upsold to cabin air filter you don't need, keep, I would stick with your maintenance schedule.

And if someone comes out and it's a little bit dirty, unless there's like a bunch of leaves

in it, I would say let it go till the next time. So if your maintenance schedule says 15,000 miles

for a cabin air filter change and you're at your 7,500 mile service and they try and upsell

you a cabin air filter, unless it's super dirty and it might be depending on where you live,

if you live near a dirt road or in a place where it's windy and dusty and dry, if you

live in a desert area like parts of New Mexico, Arizona, you might have the need. But

normally if it's just a little bit dirty you could probably push it the next 7,500 miles to

the 15,000 mile service. So I would stick with your service interval to avoid being upsold

unnecessarily. And I would also do that to avoid the opposite problem where you push it too long

and it's actually dirty and then you're not breathing clean air in your car. So if your car

has a cabin air filter and almost all new cars do, look up your or use your owner's

manual and go with that mileage just to avoid spending money you don't have to, but also to

avoid having an uncomfortable situation. Absolutely and stick into the schedule and

wise car owners when they're looking at their service schedule will notice there's a severe

service and a regular service. And the severe service would be, as you mentioned, people

living in very dusty areas or somewhere where there's a lot of maybe a lot of wind,

maybe a lot of debris and things like that. So follow your manual. That's probably some

of the best advice anyone can give. Yeah and I would say the severe service actually probably

applies to almost anybody, especially if you're driving in heavy traffic or you can kind of go

in between your, what do you want to call it, between your severe service and your more

regular, maybe go in between a little bit too as well. Agreed. So with that Matthew do you

want to have anything you want to add? Nothing to add. Thanks man. I do think this is an important

topic and a good one for people to try if they're just getting into working on their car.

Yeah it's a simple one too. Like you said you can oftentimes replace these

very easily through your glove box and there's also aren't necessarily expensive repairs. If

they are expensive at a dealer it's probably a labor issue because maybe in some cars the

filter is hard to reach but it's it's worth spending the money on whether it's 20 bucks plus

labor or whatever. Usually the part is like 15-20 bucks American. So definitely worth spending

the money on. So with that Matthew do you want to have anything to add? We'll go ahead and

wrap our Stuff With You segment for this week. No thank you for having me on the show again.

If you like what you hear on the Truth About Cars podcast please give us a review.

You can also find us online at ttech.com that is ttac.com where your home for car reviews,

car news, opinions and so so much more. Here on the Truth About Cars podcast just about every

week we discuss NASCAR that's even true during the off season and NASCAR made some news this week.

So we're going to talk to ttech contributor Matthew Guy about that. Matthew how you doing?

I'm great looking forward to talking about NASCAR some some exciting changes.

Yeah yeah so I think you're excited. I am not quite as excited but I'm not exactly upset either. So

before we get into our opinions let's get into the facts. So NASCAR is ditching the

playoff format that has existed from 2014 through last season. No more playoff. We're going back

to the Chase model which was in place from 2004 to 2013. It determines the champion based on

cumulative points over the final 10 weeks of the season. There's no four rounds of playoffs

with winner taking the whole thing. So that's going to make a big change to NASCAR.

And that's pretty much it. I'm looking at some other details here. Oh let me go

into a few more details before we get into our opinions on this. So the Cup series regular season

remains 26 races and this is from the Daytona Tribune I believe or the Daytona Beach News Journal.

So what better local newspaper to cover NASCAR than the one where Daytona is based

or where NASCAR is based where the Daytona Speedway is. So anyway the Cup series regular

season will remain at 26 races. This is there wording wants to check our flag drops

in the finale. So when the finale ends in August at Daytona. So we were right about that in our

previous episode when we were going over the schedule that Daytona the second Daytona race

will still end the regular season. So the top 16 Tribes and points will qualify for the Chase.

So getting and by the way winning now winning a regular season race no longer gets in the

postseason no no automatic postseason birth there but you get more points now for a victory.

You get 55 and that doesn't include the safe points. So it's up 15 over the previous of 40.

So the points leader went to the chase at 2100 points with a 25 point difference between himself

and the second place driver. Second third was separated by 10 after that each position will go

down by five points. So there's no more playoff rounds no more eliminations.

So that's kind of how it works. And Matthew I want to hear your thoughts first. I've

got mine. I want to hear yours first. Absolutely. And I think this is a this is a good change.

I know that a lot of people have been clamoring for change to the playoff system for a very long

time. Yours truly included. And I think a big big thing for me was hearing I guess reinforcement

from Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his podcast when he was talking about how back in you know before

the playoffs with the whole winning your in system that we had you know you could win the Daytona 500

and then you're into the playoffs no matter what. Right. And so that that was the thing.

And I did not favor that because I liked what junior said that sometimes there would be races

you know throughout the season and you didn't really have to worry about bouncing back from

a bad race in the middle of season. Right. Like if you would want to if you won early in the in the

in the in the season sometime in February or March if you had a string of bad races for

summer well it didn't matter you're in playoffs. Right. So that's gone. And I think that's

pretty good. It's interesting to see some of the finer details of this but one of the

things with the win as you said will now earn the race winning driver 55 points which

is 15 over last time that certainly would encourage I would imagine it would encourage

most drivers to put the pedal to the metal if they're trying to seek those extra 15 points

versus second place right in order to in order to get those points for the win.

And looking through as you were saying Tim with those 16 drivers that's a lot 16 drivers

is just but all the quote unquote good ones all the quote unquote usual suspects for lack of ever

term you know the original chase was 10 it was expanded to 12 you had the year of spin gate

when they had the extra plus one with a put Jeff Gordon in but we've settled on 16 and there's

100 points spread between first and 16th once the points reset at the over the last 10 races

that's a lot especially with 45 I'm sorry 55 points for a site so those are two those are

two races someone's gonna have to make up so if you're deep in the points your chances of winning

are markedly different than some of the others some of the other competitors who might have entered

the playoffs in the or the chase I should say in the top five or even the top 10 and

and thinking back and I didn't you know I mean I'm you know I'm in the mid 40s right so I you always

hold out hope that they're going to go for a season long point stretch I think we all knew that wasn't

going to happen right you can wish but this is a really I think this is better than what we had

last year for sure and it's obviously the other point I was trying to make I can't remember

unfortunately I can't I can't I don't I don't know because you didn't tell me at a time

no I was going somewhere with that but with the 2100 points I think that that's a pretty good

starting point and I'm looking forward to see if there's any other minutiae that comes out of this

you know points for you know the stage points and those types of things I didn't see it mentioned

that they're ending stages in terms of stopping the races I think they're still doing stages

it's that's what it looked like on my initial reading yeah me too and like they're still throwing

the caution so that's man there's something they can change for next year but I don't mind stage points

I mean stage points that's a good thing right I mean because they always used to give out points

for halfway leader at the halfway and stuff like that oh I know what I was going to say I mean

because you know I'm of a certain age demographic where it's like hey you know I've been watching

NASCAR for a million years um it didn't really click that the playoffs have been around for over 10

years right and these the start of this chase was you know well over 20 years ago so you know that's

a long time it shows my age right it shows my age for sure so yeah many ways I was in college still

when they started the chase same bro yeah what's your take what what do you think because

I mean we only learned about this just like an hour ago from this recording yeah so I have

heavily mixed feelings uh I have and we've discussed the playoff format a million times over the past

year and a half thank you for your patience oh no it's fine and we've agreed a little bit that

the format needed tweaking I think we've also hidden the fact that you know go to the playoffs

and there's a lot of non-playoff drivers in the playoffs and they could mess up a playoff

driver's attempt to win I have I have very mixed feelings being a fan of the stick and ball sports

it's easy for me to wrap my head around playoff it's easy for me to wrap around the idea of elimination

I'm stumbling a little because I had mixed feelings about the previous format I like the

idea of playoffs I do but I didn't love the way it was done before because I didn't love the

fact that as we talked about a few times on previous episodes that a non-playoff driver

could mess up someone's playoff attempts or could help I forget what race it was and I forget

which drivers it was but somebody helped a playoff driver who was a teammate last year I forget who

it was the guy was out of the race and it was completely legal and it was not I think we even

agreed was it was totally it was not a metheco or anything but it was just it wasn't unfair

necessarily but it was just weird you know like you've said before and the other other sports

non-playoff teams don't affect playoffs right those guys are just out there golfing so

that's that's always been something weird about NASCAR but NASCAR could never really eliminate

drivers because once you're eliminated out of the final four no one wants to watch four

drivers go on the track for two and a half hours you want to watch 40 drivers go on the

track for two and a half hours so NASCAR always had it tough I always thought they should have

I don't know if they should let more drivers in and then maybe your final race would have

been 12 drivers or something I don't know but then even if you have even if you have 12 drivers

one big crash in a one mile track and take out half the field so um I'm not really sure how NASCAR

could have made playoffs better and that may be why they're going back to the chase now I do

remember and I wasn't following NASCAR as closely as you were during the chase era that was the

that was the time of my life where I wasn't following NASCAR super closely but I do remember

hearing a lot of complaints about the chase and I don't remember what they were specifically I'm sure

I will remember once the season starts and and I'm like oh yeah I remember hearing that 15 20

years ago okay but um you know and the other thing is I always like the original format that I

grew up with where it's just you get points for leading laps pole position winning a race

wherever you finish in a race and just the guy who had the most points at the end of the year

won I always loved that system but it's boring for fans I think in some ways um hardcore fans who

watch every race or almost every race yeah they get early they can get into it and I think and I think

um that you know those type of fans love it but if you're a casual fan I can understand how

having a playoff or a chase with a cup and having the 10 in the final 10 races only so many

drivers go into championship that spikes us up adds drama I get it and I also understand that

it gives a chance both playoffs and this chase give a chance for a driver who's maybe middle of the

pack if they qualify if they're good enough to qualify I can't recall if it was 12 or 16 drivers

of the playoffs last year but if they're good enough to qualify for the chase if they're in

that top 16 now they got a shot at winning the whole thing whereas if it was just all points

the points who accumulate over the season without a playoff or without it you know if you

didn't have a lot of points early it would be hard to come back unless you won a bunch of races

near the end so this this gives a chance to some drivers who might have otherwise been out of it

if I'm doing and if I'm thinking that through correctly if I'm getting my logic and reasoning

correct um so there's that uh I I was mixed feelings in the playoffs before about the

automatic birth from a winner the point you raised that Dale Earnhardt Jr. raised is absolutely

true that you don't that you know if you win a race early you don't have to worry about

bouncing back necessarily for a bad day but I also thought it was kind of a good thing too

you know it gives you gonna set up to win and it also gives the driver who did win and it kind of

the perk of that is okay you want to race now you don't have to stress as much

later in the season if you have a bad day or bad luck you know we both know that a lot of

racing things happen and not necessarily a driver's fault a mechanical failure being

caught up in a wreck that really they couldn't avoid so um you know I think NASCAR excuse me I

think NASCAR probably has to have some sort of chase or playoff system or something other than

just the most points in the season especially since the most points in the season though

someone can just run away with it and hide the way we've seen an Indy car uh with Alex

Palo the past couple years yes but with um so I think NASCAR needs some sort of post season

I think they need some sort of post season that man that keeps all 36 or 40 drivers involved in those

final 10 races so I don't but I'm not sure if I love the chase any more than the playoff I think

both have a lot of flaws and I I would love to see a playoff system that was just better at

managing the non-playoff drivers and a little more equitable but I'm not quite sure how that

would work so Matthew um I'm gonna throw it back to you for a second here yeah and it's it

will be it is tough no matter uh if you have a chase or or a playoff type point system in NASCAR to

not have any non-competing for the championship drivers um not interfere you know what I mean or

not be on the track at the same time it's just because it's so different than stick and ball

sports right but but I do I do think the playoffs a big quote-unquote problem you know with the

playoffs was everyone was racing towards that last event right in November and then I think the system

really reached his breaking point this year when I mean Denny Hamlin he dominated that race right

and it was just a late caution it wasn't anyone's fault in terms of you know the four drivers it

was just racing luck right and it was just simple racing yeah he kind of screwed on racing luck

he really did he really did right and I mean you know we've we've talked all about Denny

Hamlin and and you know and and his his challenges all throughout and then over Christmas right I mean

the you know the the things that happened over Christmas as well I mean the poor man has been

through the ringer yeah and right and then you know but with that race I mean the change the final

sequence and Larson finished what he finished I believe he finished two points ahead or two

spots ahead of Hamlin despite not leading a single lap and mired in like a 20 race losing streak

so I'd never take anything away from Carl Larson in terms of winning another championship I mean

man he is a hell of a wheel man and he put himself in the position to earn that championship right

but it's just so difficult so difficult situation that is just that one race and all he had to do

was finish a couple of points a couple of spots ahead so that you know won't happen

now with the chase right you got to be good over those last 10 races and

it's going to change the water on the beans to use the an old-fashioned term

you're thinking coffee beans right and you're like okay so those are good and those are bad

anyways but it does change the look and I'm sure how teams are going to approach those last 10

races and their strategies so I think we're in for an exciting 2026 season I'm glad that someone

at NASCAR is at least listening right yeah yeah right so yeah so changes in this case I think it's

all right and you know we'll see where it goes as we race towards the homestead because we're back in

Miami again for the final race yeah so that's my thoughts man I'm looking forward to it as well

yeah I should add too I will say I do give NASCAR props for listening to the fans and it did

seem like the playoffs on popular and like I said I'm not a huge defender of the playoff I didn't

I tolerated it the way it was like I liked it well enough and I wasn't clamoring for change I

wasn't quite to the point where you are or you really wanted to see change but at the same time

I'm not like that upset that it's changing it's not like you know when there's big change

there's two types of people who fight against it there's there's ones who just don't like change

in general and there are those who think the system is fine and just can't understand why it's

changing but neither in that case in this case I uh I'm finally changing it I just like I said a

few minutes ago I was hoping that whatever changes they made would stick to a playoff format but

just be a little more fair and avoid some of the some of the stuff that happened to like

Denny Hammond last year but NASCAR listening to fans is really a good thing I do wish they would

have made the announcement a little sooner or well they couldn't have waited until like

till Daytona because the teams need to strategize but it would have made the most sense and announce

it during Daytona but it really would have made more sense to announce it last fall after the

season ended however they had their lawsuit and I think I think they had to hold until they did

until that was determined what was going to happen because if uh if they hadn't gone the

way it had gone we talked about it a few episodes ago NASCAR may have broken up I mean that was

probably a very unlikely outcome but it was not out of the realm of possibility so NASCAR had to

kind of sit back and wait and see what was happening first but um yeah we'll see how it goes and I may

end up liking it better once once we see it I have mixed feelings about the nine like I said

about the nine eliminations I think I said this a few minutes ago but part of me kind of like

the eliminations because it is a little bit like sticking to the wall sports like oh okay well

someone so mage around too now he's he's out because he didn't get enough another part of me is

like well no it's kind of nice that someone can suffer from a bad day and bad luck and still be

in it or or you know maybe like like last like last season we were both kind of you and I were

both kind of hoping to shave in Gisburg and we'll go a little further than he did because

we want to see him on the on the roval I don't think he made it that far if I remember

correctly so that's right yeah so now you're gonna get now you get a chance to see drivers

if they make the top 16 you're going to see some of these drivers battling them out for the chase

on tracks that maybe they do well at or you're going to see storylines like that like like a

road course specialist doing well on the roval or you know again I don't have to schedule in front

of me with those top 10 track or those final 10 tracks if I remember correctly fairly heavy in

terms of the mile mile and a half intermediates that we talk about all the time the kind of

bread and butter tracks as opposed to super speedways and road courses so you might see drivers who

really excel at that type of racing you know getting battling it out and because the NASCAR has a lot

of those tracks and a lot of drivers are used to that type of racing you may see a pretty wide

open field so I you know I'm keeping an open mind here because I'm not like a stalwart defender

of the previous system I given my druthers and again I'm not smart enough to figure out

the answer otherwise I'd give it to you people or you folks in our audience but um I if I was smart

enough I would I would propose an actual playoff that was better than what we had before and maybe

if I sat down and really thought about it I could come up with something but I haven't I

haven't had the time to do that so um yeah so I was gonna if I were in charge I would have

tried to keep the playoffs but tweak it to make it to fix the flaws but that may have also not been

possible and I'm thinking it through my head as we as I talk I'm not quite sure how you could really

fix the idea of non-playoff drivers affecting the playoff race and and by the way it's still

gonna be a problem in the chase it's less of a problem because you're not looking at

eliminations and you've got but you still have uh two-thirds of field give or take

won't be in the chase and they can still affect what happens that's gonna be a problem I think there's

no way around that no matter how you do the playoffs unless you used to straight point accumulation

like they did when I was growing up so there's no way around non-play if you if you designate

X amount of drivers as playoff drivers they're gonna be affected by unless you take unless

you only race the 16 which they're not gonna do because it's not not very good racing for the

fans um if I'm wrong about that we'll find out but I think as I understand it the the chase will

involve non-chase drivers as well so yeah yeah so you're not gonna you're not gonna get around that

problem but it may be less severe because it won't eliminate a guy if if a non-playoff driver

crashes him out or something so I don't know we'll see I don't know if I have much more on

this do you have anything else you want to add no not not in this episode I'm sure we'll

talk about it again next week though yeah not not just next week but probably in the final 10 weeks

of the season all of it we will you're right yeah look forward to it it's gonna be good yeah and I

think for next week depending on if there's breaking news we're still in this we're still in

escarcelia season and there's always the possibility of a driver still changing teams or

something uh in the news that we can't cannot anticipate but we I think we'll talk about

the future and the past of the recently resigned Steve Phelps next week and what that might mean for

nascar and um whether he was good or bad for the sport you've got a lot of thoughts on it I I don't

know I have if I have a lot of familiarity on his time at the helm of nascar and what he

did and didn't do both good and bad for the sport so um I will uh kind of probably let you

take the driver's seat on that one next week but barring any changes to nascar news we will be

discussing Steve Phelps next week and if and if something does happen that is more important

well we'll get to Steve Phelps at some point sooner rather than later so with that that'll

go ahead and close out our um nascar segment here on the truth about cars podcast thank you

Matthew thank you Tim ebay has reinvented vehicle buying from click to curb everything's

covered ever try to buy a car online and end up in a parking lot with a stranger and some blind trust

that era is over now with secure purchase ebay isn't just where you find your car it's where you buy it

start to finish title financing registration delivery it's all built in this is the modern

way to buy our next ride on ebay ebay things people love secure purchase is powered by car

mall dealer services llc in ebay subsidiary that's all for this week's truth about cars

podcast i'm tim healy the managing editor and you can find us wherever your podcasts you can also

find us online at ttsc.com that's t-tech.com on the truth about cars all spelled out dot com we

thank matthew guy and john vinson for their time and matt poskey for editing most of all we thank

you for listening we'll see you next time

TTAC At The 2026 Detroit Auto Show

About this episode

Cadillac Lyric

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from The Truth About Cars