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August 28, 2025 39 mins
Bradley Jay Fills in on NightSide

As of January 31, 2026, annual car inspections will no longer be mandatory in the state of New Hampshire. Is this relief from the heavy hand of government or a public safety nightmare? Would you get your car inspected if you didn’t have to? Craig Fitzgerald, Automotive Editor with DCI Marketing, and former auto editor with Hemmings, The Boston Globe, and GateHouse Media, joined Bradley to discuss the pros and cons of New Hampshire’s decision to strike mandatory inspection as well as Waymo testing self-driving vehicles in Boston.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
We're with Craig Fitzgerald right now on WBZ. He's the
automotive writer automotive editor of DC for DCI Marketing.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Right, what do you do at DCI Marketing?

Speaker 4 (00:18):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
I do.

Speaker 5 (00:18):
We do a lot of work for UH, Subaru, Kia GM.
We do a lot of marketing work for them. So
I edited a magazine for a long time for Subaru,
which was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Plus Greig's funny. You had to follow him on LinkedIn. Well, thanks,
that's where you do you most of your funny stuff.
That's where my most of my comedy is. Yeah, at
the UH like the Better Bureau, better Business Bureau.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Of the Internet. Yeah, we are.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Asking you if you're in favor of this new Hampshire
policy of dropping mandatory automotive inspections after the after this
year at the beginning of next year and the number
six one, seven, two five. We're having fun actually, that's
that's my prime directive here and Ed is in Worcester.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Hello, Ed, Thank you, Hey, Ed?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
What's happening.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
I've been a car dealer pretty much all my life,
almost thirty years and I'm totally in favor of state inspections.
I'm just I was floored when I heard the news
about New Hampshire doing away with no inspections. The difference.
In New Hampshire, I used car dealer or new card
dealer cannot put a car on the car lot or

(01:31):
sale without being inspected first. Here in Massachusetts we do
it the other way around.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yeah, And but it's it's not only the small amount
of money these repair shops are making, but the state,
the little revenue that is bringing in. It's and it
holds the car dealers accountable.

Speaker 6 (01:52):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
We do out the good guys and the bad guys,
you know, instantaneously. And I think it's very crucial. And
I hope, you know, they change their mind in the
amshure and it certainly hopefully it never happens here in
Massachusetts because we definitely definitely need it. Yeah, everyone all
the way around.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
And I'm not that bright.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
And if all the puzzle pieces aren't fitting in for me,
doesn't I mean that if people don't have to get
their car inspected as much, you will lose money.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
The inspection stations will, yes, absolutely, the small gas stations,
the small mop mop pop small you know, mom pops.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
So you can't get inspections out the dealerships, Yeah you can.

Speaker 5 (02:36):
I mean most people you can, Yeah, most people who
service at dealerships. I mean the for the for the
small shops, Like the equipment that they need to get
a hold of to run inspections is insanely expensive. It's
like it was like sixty grand or something for the computers.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yes, yes, and now the cameras too. But before you
you you were able to buy that machine like a
liquor license, a special you know, the machine itself. But
but now they're more readily available. But here, like our
small car dealerships, we have to go somewhere else for
a stick. It's not done in the house, you know,

(03:19):
and it's it's for thirty fight dollars. It's not a
big amount of money.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, if you're a dealer that does inspections, even though
you have to outsource it, it gets people in the
door where you you get access to that didn't your
card inspection is gonna cast why not?

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Why can't I just get you into this brand?

Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah car?

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Come on, you know, I'm right.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
Yeah, Bradley, Bradley is looking at this, this is a
vast conspiracy that Bradley is is trying to save us
from here right.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
A road.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
Tires on every car.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
I am wrong, not trust I am I wrong to know
that the dollar is getting the deep state is is
is gonna make you have good tires to make more money.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
They're gonna do.

Speaker 7 (04:19):
No.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
And you know, So here's the thing I like. I
you're the last call of from from New Hampshire. Like he,
he brought up the one point, which is like this
disproportionately affects people who are at the lowest economic level. Right,
so you're you're a single mom, you got two kids,

(04:40):
You're just trying to get by and you got to
you know, it's thirty five bucks, but then it's the
repairs you know that you may need to do after.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
I do feel for those people.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
The people I don't feel for are the guy who
goes out and buys a new hell Cat and takes
the exhaust off and drives by your house at three
o'clock in the morning. I don't care about him. I
don't care about the the guy with the F two
fifty and the lift kit.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Many of them, there are a lot Hellcats.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
How many times have you seen a high viz green
car on the road one maybe, Yeah, it's the lift kits,
it's the open exhaust, like.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
You know, like I don't care about those people. I
do care about people who are at the at the
lowest end of the economic spectrum.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Though.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
It is a challenge because you have to get you
have to get insurance here too, so I mean it's
it's an expensive deal to own a car. The interesting
thing with New Hampshire is now they're finally talking about
having mandatory insurance there, which they never had before. So
that's like that's a whole different thing with New Hampshire.
I mean it's like people would plow into you from

(05:47):
New Hampshire you didn't know whether they had insurance or
out of luck.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Yeah yeah, Rhode Islands, right, you know, right, absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I want to hear a weird accent that I was
in since we're just you know, it can happen no
matter how carefully you are. I wasn't even driving, I
wasn't even in the car. I think I might have been.
I might have been in New Hampshire, way up in Weirdville,
New Hampshire. And I can say that because I'm from
New Hampshire. So I'm at a gas station, right, I'm

(06:18):
under the little you know, the canopy canopy. I put
the thing, the nozzle in the car.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
It's not working. What did I do wrong?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
I go to the pump to find out what I'm
doing wrong. I got to hit some lever or something, right,
push a button and all.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Of a sudden, whoem, somebody ran into me. While I
want the castage.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
I was parked with the hose in the car.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
So it was one of those convenience stores where up
front is the store and there's driving parking, and then
maybe forty feet behind that the pumps. That's prey, very normal.
And the dude just callously backed out.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
And whipped around, slammed right into it, super wide and
right you take off.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
There's there's just no.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
You just never know, you know, you can just be
at the gas station and get whacked.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Well, I appreciate anything.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
Else ed, Yeah, I should do it.

Speaker 6 (07:28):
Thank you very much, guys.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
Have a very night, good talking. Always great to get
a call from Wista, Wista, Wista. All right, there are
three things? Oh the other thing.

Speaker 5 (07:40):
Yeah, so we're we're like four to nothing here, by
the way, on keep versus versus.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Oh yeah, Bradley, you're the one you want to get
rid of you.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
But you're right, I might maybe I'll defer my decision
till after the entirety of the discussion.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
We're gonna we're gonna convince you.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, I don't have much faith in humanity at all,
and I know that they're going to have ball tires.
People have ball tires now, and I despise that. Sorry,
I don't despise you if you have ball tires that
I despise your inaction at having ball tires come on.
That's dangerous. They can pop. I'm a person who had

(08:23):
a blowout on the highway.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
So I'm sensitive to that.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Of course, this was back in the day when your
head retreads bias ply retreat retreads. There I was in
my nineteen sixty seven Chevy bel there. It looked like
a police car because because I think they might have
used them sometimes. And I'm on my way in my
ultra youth to visit my brother at Plymouth State College

(08:47):
Route ninety three and it's pretty high speed route just
past Tilton Tilton, New Hampshire, go around the corner where
you could turn off to tilted and then there's this
big long uphill, so I'm tearing up in wham, yep,
it just blew the It's an eye opener.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Isn't it.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Luckily it was right front, so yeah, it sucked me
into the breakdown lane instead of into the other linement.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
Man, I, if you.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
Have that happened once, you're obsessed about your tires, because
I had it happened twice, and it's it's like nothing
you ever experienced. I had it happen at like seventy
five miles an hour on four ninety five, and it, uh,
it could have been real bad.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
You know. The more I think about it, You're right.
People will not change the tires.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
They won't. They will go bald.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
And I when I'm on the highway and I see
somebody slammed in to.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
The barrier and flipped over, I think, how does that happen?

Speaker 7 (09:49):
What?

Speaker 3 (09:49):
What are you doing that that happens? I get in.
I'm one of those.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
I get in the lane, the middle lane, not the
passing lane, and I stay there. I keep plenty of distance,
not crazy distance, and I don't swerve around and change lanes.
And so I don't know how somebody slams into the barrier,
you know, from being a gratuitous lane change here. That's

(10:16):
what I think.

Speaker 5 (10:17):
This is one of the nice things about I'm driving
a Hyundai Ionic five that's got adaptive cruise control and
lane departure warning and all of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
It makes you concentrate more on the lane that you're in,
you know, it.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
Just kind of keeps you there and if you want to,
if you're yeah, yep, and you know, it follows the
car in front of you. So if you're doing seventy five,
you're just following that guy at seventy five.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
It just feels more peaceful to me for the most part,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
And when we talked about this, what I love is
the new technology that allows you to set cruise control yep,
and then you can set how close you want to
be to the car in front of you, and it
automatically slows down to keep that speed. So if you yeah,
set it for one hundred feet or whatever, you don't
have to keep disengaging and re engaging cruise control. And
then when you want to pass, you get out from

(11:13):
behind that car and CRU's control knows is no one
in front of you and speeds up on its own
yep to the chosen speed, by the way, on CU's control.
What speed do you choose? Let's say it's a sixty five,
seventy five, seventy five seventy five ye not seventy four, Nope,
seventy five.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Okay, And if you get pulled over, I don't.

Speaker 5 (11:36):
Think anybody has gotten pulled over for seventy five since
about nineteen nine, ers, I.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Want to ask. I'll ask that question right now.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Has anyone been pulled over for going ten miles for
going seventy five and a sixty five or ten miles
over unless it's a school, So if it's thirty five
and forty five, you probably do. I'm curious about that, Okay,
all right, I don't hate me, but I do I
kind of you said you're up, you're up seventy eight? Yeah, No,

(12:07):
ten seems like a scary round number. Nah, Let a.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Rip seventy five? Is it's seventy five? You're getting passed?
All right?

Speaker 2 (12:16):
If somebody's in the passing lane going the speed limit,
do you pass on the right.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
I'm starting to use the slow lane as the passing
lane now, because there's never anybody in it like it?
I'm sure it is, but it's we are now to
the point where the passing lane is, the travel lane,
the middle lane is I don't know what that does,
and nobody's ever in the slow lane, so like it.

(12:44):
It drives me insane. It's it's like this doesn't happen
anywhere else in the world.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
It me insane.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
I feel like John Goodman and the big Lebowski win
what's his name? Steps over the line.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, there are the rules. This is not this is
the saying there rules. Come on.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, I'm a rule follower, and I always seem like
I always lose, and it seems like the rule breakers win,
and and I hate.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
The passing lane is just littered now littered with traffic
earlier and shell.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Okay, well, look at the time. It's time for a
break on WBZ.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
That is correct them. We're glad you are.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Let's go directly to Bill and Wooster if you like
to join us as well. We're speaking with Craig Fitzgerald
talking Carr automotive stuff, but particularly hey, are you in
favor of new Hampshire getting rid of the mandatory automobile inspection.
I'm really happy that they're going to have mandatory insurance.
But we're talking. I guess you can address that too.

(13:52):
It's Bill and Wooster.

Speaker 8 (13:53):
Hey, Bill, Yes, and a couple of questions, one on
tiers and one on limits. Sure, But before I get
into that, as far as this inspection thing, from what
I understand, in Florida, you buy a car or you
register a car. The first time I was told this
on me ten years ago, the first time, you have
to pay for that. You have to have an inspection,

(14:15):
and you never have a have to do another inspection.
So it's sort of like when when New Hampshire is
getting to in a way, So what in New Hampshire
you don't even need it day one when you buy
a used.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
Car, right, So so you know, I will say that
Massachusetts is one of only thirteen states that has a
uh AN inspection process. So most of the country does
not have.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
A safety inspection, even on day one.

Speaker 5 (14:41):
It depends that definitely depends on the state. Some of
them may be day one, but you know, most states
don't have a safety inspection, so you know that's but.

Speaker 8 (14:51):
But I think that that still carries a responsibility to
have it right. Otherwise, I think it's a violation. If
they stop you for anything, that would be requirement that
it'd be proper.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
So that's a good point.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
You know, if you're if your vehicle, if the lights
are out, if you know whatever, you can get stopped
for that that's a primary and I think they'll give
you a violation.

Speaker 8 (15:14):
But maybe you know, Bet and I do. Have you
heard how aggressive they are on that sort of thing
those states that don't do it.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
That's the other thing is like who you know we
were talking about this before, is like cops are busy
Now they're like, they're not, they're not they're not pulling in.

Speaker 8 (15:27):
But that's a moving violation. That's a shurchout. Yeah, I
don't know a guy that's for ten five years. He's crazy.
I mean, that's gonna cost him a thousand dollars before
it's over right.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
I'd rather pay the thirty five bucks to be honest,
I know it. You know.

Speaker 8 (15:39):
Now on speed limits, I'm kind of an older guy
eighties and I have a hot time going sixty five
the speed limit, and hell, trying to keep up with
seventy five these see people. So I'm a right hand
What is that called the inside? Right, the foul right
or up the old? Yeah, that's the inside. Now I'm wondering.
I did check on the computer, and it says the
minimum speed on Massachusetts into state highways is forty five

(16:01):
miles an hour.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Correct.

Speaker 8 (16:02):
I can handle forty five, and I can even handle
fifty with a little uh, a little uh fere. But
I have a problem with trying to go much over
fifty to fifty three with kas of budding. And when
they're not around, I can go one hundred myself. But
when they're around, I get that thing out anything, you know, Am
I violating anything by being on that far right lane

(16:23):
if I'm not exiting the next exit? Is that a travel?
Is that all right to be a travel?

Speaker 3 (16:30):
That lane?

Speaker 5 (16:31):
You can be in that lane, and you're correct. The
state minimum is forty five miles an hour. Uh, And
if you're in that first lane, you're fine. I mean,
the only the only thing to be aware of is,
you know, there's people merging out and all of that
kind of stuff.

Speaker 8 (16:46):
You know all this, but no, you'll be in the
bridge a little more often. Goozen that to get ahead,
I understand the problem there.

Speaker 5 (16:52):
You're you're completely legal doing that, But don't people.

Speaker 8 (16:55):
That right, because it does make it does make sense
that it would be only for exiting. It makes a
little sense. And I'm wondering, what is that lane called
ribally is we know there's a passing lane, there's a
travel lane in the middle. What is that lane identified
riby eighty lane?

Speaker 5 (17:11):
I think I'm pretty sure that they just call it
the first lane, but I'm.

Speaker 8 (17:15):
Not a hundred I think a name more designated. I
think I don't know that the exiting lane, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
I mean, it's.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
There for more than that, though you know you you
don't have to travel in the travel lane. You can
travel in that lane.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
Isn't it just that?

Speaker 8 (17:31):
So I didn't know for sure if that was true,
if the copy aggressive cop could get you for not
getting off if you followed you for a few exits.
But it's okay.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Let me ask you one question. But yeah, although it
may be.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Legal, do you find people shaking their fists at you?

Speaker 9 (17:46):
Well?

Speaker 8 (17:46):
Sure, but what am I going to do? I mean,
if I go faster, I can't handle it yet. I'm
legal on the forty five. But you're right, and the
trucks come up on you because they're in that lane
coming down a hill. That can be tough. I'll try
to put the blinkers on, but I don't. I don't work.
I'm retired. I'm not on the highway that often, but
there's no alternative to getting anywhere. Occasionally. I'm only on
a highway very seldom, and sometimes in the city of

(18:09):
Wister area where you get two ninety, sometimes you jump
on and off it just to go across town, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, By the way, do they make you at your age?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
However, do they make you get your license renewed or
check you, make you take a test and stuff?

Speaker 3 (18:23):
You know.

Speaker 8 (18:23):
I'm not sure, but I'm pretty good. My eyesight is
very good with glasses. Everything is good, except I don't
know IF's it the toennighters, like the bringing any ear
that that effects my vertigo or whatever. Something has caused
me not to have the ability to go now. Years
ago i worked, I was going sixty five seventy, but
being retired for twenty years and not familiarized with a

(18:45):
lot of highway driving. Being retired sometimes it's a new
experience when you get up on there and it's not
frequent enough that you develop the familiarity with it, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, Now, Bill, what we're going to do is this,
if in when we find out that there is a
designated name for lane number one, we will let you know.
In the meantime, I'm going to tell you what's coming
up next. We're gonna switch the topic a little bit.
It'll still be an automotive, but it's this, uh self

(19:18):
driving cars. There there's a company, there's one company that's
really going gang ho on them more and more. They
push them and they say that they're you know, they're
they're better. And so there are classes of self driving cars,
a lot to know, and Craig's gonna spell it out.
But my question to you is are you ready for
a Class four or a level four self driving car,

(19:41):
which means that there's.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
No person has to be in it at all? Would
you like to see that?

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Would you like to be on a two lane road
as you're, you know, driving through Middleborough and having these
cars come at you with no people on them.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Are you Are you good with that? Well, talk more
about that after this on WBZ.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News Radio.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Here's how it's going to go. For the rest of
this hour.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
We are going to talk to Angelo, Bill and Or
and Or Brad, and we're also going to get into
whether or not we're ready, whether or not you're ready
for self driving cars, and we're going to do all
this there. Yes, Craig Fitzgerald, who's here's a car guy
through and through. He's been one since you three. He
started reading, having having his Motor News Irac when he

(20:34):
was three. Yeah, that's right. So we're gonna go to
Angelo and Newton first. Yeah, so we're talking at this point.
It's kind of a combo of the fact that New
Hamps is getting rid of mandatory auto inspections and we're
kind of moving into the self driving car. And I
will update you on on what's going on there.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
So Angelo in Newton, Hi, I take my call.

Speaker 9 (21:01):
You know, I don't they're wrong doing away with this spectistic.
I think they should stay with it because how is
anybody's when they have.

Speaker 7 (21:09):
Trouble with their breaks.

Speaker 9 (21:11):
So if they have other troubles with other things, so
boss lakes and stuff like that, you know, if rules,
the rules always were still.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
And I.

Speaker 9 (21:21):
And will continue to be and so the laws they
should always the laws should always be the way they
I kind of I don't get it why they want
to get away with the inspection?

Speaker 3 (21:33):
I agree, Angelo, You're my kind of person. Thank you,
Angel and fantastic. Why do they want to get what
is the argument to get rid of them again? Please? Uh?
It's primarily the cost, right, So you gotta pay for
the well, you gotta pay for the inspection.

Speaker 5 (21:48):
But then it's also you got to pay for the repairs,
and if you have the repairs anyway, you kind of should.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Have the repairs done.

Speaker 5 (21:55):
So you know, I do get it. I do understand
that part. I hope that there are some organizations out
there that help people, you know, when they need car
repairs and can't afford it.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
So do the majority of states believe that people are
responsible enough to get repairs.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
When they need them? I guess they do. I guess.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
I mean, I don't know what it's like, you know,
when you register a car out in Oklahoma, you know, so.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
They overall probably believe that the majority of people are
responsible in general.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
Yeah, I guess I don't believe that at all, do you?
I mean, just look around.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Bill, Bill and bred and Hingham and anybody else.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
I mean this we've kind of extrapolated to do you
believe that people are responsible?

Speaker 3 (22:37):
In general? Are the majority of people are responsible? Huh yeah,
I don't know, man, I don't know. How would you?

Speaker 5 (22:46):
I mean, look at the people, Look at the look
at what people drive around in you know, it's the
way people drive. Yeah, they are not responsible.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
Oh yeah, okay, I'm changing my vote. All right, we're
batting a thousand on the votes here. Yeah, you're right.
It looks like you got it wrong. I thought I
was gonna fight with people tonight, but apparently not.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
New Hampster got it wrong. And a couple of other
things too. What were the other two things?

Speaker 3 (23:08):
Cannabis? What's wrong with your New Hampshire? Right? You know.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Now that it's legal in mass Massachusetts. When I look
at New Hampshire, I think, what's wrong with you people?

Speaker 5 (23:19):
Does it feel like the up there?

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Sixteen fifty? And I can say that because I'm from
New Hampshire? All right? Bill and Bill and Yester?

Speaker 6 (23:29):
Hi?

Speaker 8 (23:30):
Yeah, very okay. One other thing I was gonna ask
you is, since we you were talking ties before, I
was to answer this question. I it's an action We've
getting products from all around the world. Now there's a
company in Indonesia or some kind of a time manufacturer,
and you heard of this, maybe you have this, I'm
asking they're telling me the ties from my size car

(23:50):
from I've bought tis for three hundred and fifty dollars.
If did my car at Peace three fifty four hundred dollars,
and they're doing it for eighty five bucks. And they
have the tread ware, and they have the called the
temperature rating and all this and that. But what do
you know about those Indonesian and tire I'm using that
name because that seems to be as a big one.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
There are a lot of tires out there that you know,
and it's worse now because they're just getting shipped in
and we have no I only trust tires that I've
heard of before. Like I literally I don't want to
drive on anything that like has got, you know, some
brand that I've never heard of. So it took me

(24:28):
a long time to get comfortable with the Kumos because
I had not heard of those for you know, they
weren't available here. They have sort of proven themselves over
the last twenty years of being a They're a legitimate tire,
their original equipment on a lot of vehicles now, so
I trust them. I do not trust a tire brand

(24:49):
that look like, literally, i've never heard of that.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Say, do you get what you're paid for? Necessarily? Not? Really? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (24:55):
With tires, yeah, I think absolutely, I think absolutely. What
about So here's my thing with tires. I want people
to pay attention to what comes on the car when
they buy it, because there's a lot of cars out
there now that are running around with twenty and twenty
one inch wheels right as you know you bought, Oh

(25:17):
I bought the high trim level. It's got these twenty
one inch wheels on it. When it comes time to
replace tires on that thing, it's insanely expensive because the
larger the wheel diameter, the more expensive the tire is.
And they're also they have a very little sidewall, So
when you're driving around here in New England and there's
potholes everywhere, you're going to end up replacing tires on

(25:41):
the regular because they just don't absorb impact like that.
I like a seventeen.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Should you kind of shot for cars or should you
eliminate a possible car purchase?

Speaker 3 (25:53):
Based on big wheels.

Speaker 5 (25:54):
To me, you know, I would not want to have
twenty ones here in mass Choose. It's just like you're
gonna go you're gonna be buying tires every year where
So like a vehicle like the Subaru the Wilderness lineup,
those now are coming with a seventeen, which has a
very pronounced sidewall. So a first of all, it provides

(26:19):
a little bit more safety as far as you know
you're not going to blow out a tire in a pothole. Secondly,
they're cheaper to replace, and finally they provide a better ride.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
So I'm a.

Speaker 5 (26:33):
Smaller wheel, more sidewall. Seventeens are good, eighteens are okay,
and once you get start getting in a nineteens, twenties,
twenty one's, they're expensive to replace.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
So does seventeen automatically come with a decent sidewall or
do you have to also shot for tires?

Speaker 5 (26:47):
Now, it's usually like you know, when a vehicle's new,
if it's got seventeens on it, they it's usually some
kind of tire with a decent.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
Sidewall on it.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
Nice nothing really comes with a seventeen and a super
thin sidewall nough.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
I guess briefly, I've come around to wish to like
inspections and wish every state would have inspections. That's what
I'm here, is why I pictured myself cruising down maybe
even well once twenty eight and some slacker with ball
tires has a blowout and causes a flip over in

(27:24):
a multi car crash.

Speaker 5 (27:25):
That is going to happen right right, And it's it's
you know, things like suspension and steering components. Most people
are not paying attention to that. So if their tyrod
ends are bad, if their sway bar end links are bad, like,
all of those things add up to a car that
doesn't perform the way it should. And it's also things

(27:48):
that most people are not paying attention to. So once
a year for thirty five bucks, it's a nice check, right.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
New Hampshire, come on?

Speaker 2 (27:58):
And also, I really I love the live free or
die license plate, but until you legalize cannabis, I don't
see how the straight faced New Hampshire you're can have
the live free.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Or die it's logo.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
You also, that's hypocritical and the highest degree New Hampshire.

Speaker 5 (28:12):
You're also as a performer, I have played in a
band in New Hampshire, Oh, on stage, and I have
been told I cannot consume alcohol while I'm playing on stage.
That's a New Hampshire state law. They tried to repeal
it in twenty eighteen, but they didn't make it.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
You actually did research on that prior to the show, correct,
And so.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
You know the reason for that, folks.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
At least the reason at the time of the writing
of the thing I read was that if you're a
performer and a venue, they consider you an employee, even
if you're not. Yeah, yess, I wasn't getting paid and
employees are not supposed to drink right while they work.

Speaker 5 (28:51):
Okay, I was not an employee of the bar. Okay,
that was when I was drinking.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Now it's Brad and hang them. Hey, Brad, two bread's
no way to.

Speaker 7 (29:00):
How well it's so terrific. It's good to have a brag.
So two things. Number one, the inspection thing is a
snapshot in time.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
That's it.

Speaker 7 (29:13):
It doesn't It doesn't make you a better car maintainer
in any way, shape or form. And in fact, I
have an expired sticker and I got stopped on the turnpike.
You know, Mass turnpike by a state trooper who does
nothing at night except read license plates and look for problem.

(29:35):
I wasn't doing anything wrong, doesn't rive, but spotted my
fact that I didn't have a license a inspection sticker
because they're linked to your registration. Well I didn't even
get a ticket. Okay, I don't think anybody cares about that.
So my opinion is, hey, who cares. But the thing

(29:56):
that worries me a little bit about the self driving
car this the weather, no ice, things like that. I
believe that, I believe that these guys can program a
car to drive on a bare road. But what happens,
and I wonder, is not that bad anymore? But occasionally
there's times when you the road isn't quite cloud there's

(30:23):
parts of the road where the road is there as
like a cross through the like a path right, no
lines to be seen, no nothing.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, a couple of things. Also, people can't drive in
that either. There's one thing, and people go too fast
in that those conditions where the car might slow down
if it starts to sense the tires of slipping.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
So there's that.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
So there's a couple of things going on here. One
is the the technology that is available for you to
purchase right now. Vehicles like GM vehicles and Ford vehicles
that have Super crews or Blue crews. They both use

(31:11):
essentially like cameras to look at the at the road
in front of you. So when you're driving on a
clear day or at night or whatever, and it can
see the you know, the lanemarkings, it follows those. It
works great, but during the bad weather it turns itself off.
You can't use it at all. On the vehicles that
you cannot buy, like the Weimo vehicles, for example, they

(31:36):
use a completely different technology.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
They use lighter, which is.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Essentially similar to the technologies that aircraft us to land
without being able to see the runway right, so's it's
a totally different technology that doesn't use visual clues to
drive on the high Now. I don't know if i'd

(32:02):
trust anything right now in bad weather. I just you know,
it's all relatively new technology. We need to work out
a lot of bugs. And I think what's happening with
self driving cars now is I think the idea was, oh,
you're going to be able to buy a car that's
going to take you from Boston and New York City
and you don't you can fall asleep behind the wheel,

(32:25):
You're you're not going to be able to buy that
car for fifty years. There are legal hurdles that need
to be overcome for for that to happen. But on
the like rental or ride sharing kind of things like waymow,
those right now are restricted to certain areas too, so

(32:48):
they're they're only you can't they don't drive just anywhere.
You have to be within a certain area for them
to work. So you know, there's a lot of things happening.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
There's a lot of tech, no logical and legal.

Speaker 5 (33:01):
Hurdles that need to happen before we're ever going to
see a real self driving car.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
When you get to real level for self driving cars,
would some headquarters be able to change your maximum speed
weather emergency that they flick a switch so no one
can go more than forty five.

Speaker 5 (33:20):
So right now, all of the cars that have that
type of technology are still monitored by a human, so
wame o all of those things. They are monitoring what
the car is doing, and they've been super safe. But
they're also in areas where the weather's not bad. Right now,
they're down south, they're in or in the southwest, like Arizona,

(33:44):
New Mexico, Texas, California. They have not really made it
up here, mostly because of the weather concerns at this point.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
So okay, I'm going to take a break, but a
quick shout out to Boston. Hey, Boston, can you please
fix the road some I mean, good God, stretches a
road like Boyleston Street between the Old Seers Building and
the fen the park there, the Victory Garden. It's horrific.

(34:15):
It's like a Fifth World nation. And you know, we
get a lot of tax revenue coming in here from
Please fix the roads. We'll talk to Doreen and Brian
and that should do it call wise. So you, Dorian
and Brian, you hang in there as WBZ.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w BZZ, Boston's
news radio.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
I have five minutes before the top of the hour
to Dorian and Brian to talk to we'll split that
evenly about this important information. For the longest time, I've
been asking you, everybody I know, police officers, lawyers, the
following question. When you come to a stoplight that is
a red arrow, and if it's not otherwise, mark, can

(34:58):
you turn right or read? We are now about to
get the answer. And the source of this is that
Craig's Sun is taking driver training driver education, and he's
got the book. The Sun has the book and Craig's
looked into it, and you may be shocked and dismayed
the answer. Here we go, Here we go.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
It is known as a protected red light, and that
means you cannot turn right on red until that's now
a green arrow.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
Okay, that's if.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
You do your risk it and if you get in
an accident while doing that, wah wah. And knowing that
now I'm going to resist. Mister I'm in a hurry
behind me beeping his own.

Speaker 5 (35:42):
So here is the law. Vehicular traffic facing a steady
red arrow signal shall not enter the intersection.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Boom, there you go. Suit me a bit.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
We have inspections and stuff driving cars, and we have
Doreen and Chelsea.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
I Doreen, you good? How's it going.

Speaker 6 (36:02):
Good?

Speaker 10 (36:03):
I don't believe. I don't believe.

Speaker 7 (36:06):
In the electric car. They're dangerous and the Tesla.

Speaker 8 (36:11):
Let me finish.

Speaker 10 (36:12):
The Tesla is a dangerous car. And mister Trump president
bought one. He had to show the red Tesla on
the lawn and then he.

Speaker 4 (36:25):
Got rid of mister Tesla, I call him.

Speaker 10 (36:28):
He is German and he's from Africa, and I wouldn't
even buy any German products whatsoever.

Speaker 7 (36:36):
They don't turn me on.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
All right, I read you. I understand what you're saying.
Thank you for the calling. And we have Ryan and bossed.
Hey Ryan, what's happening Ryan?

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Sorry?

Speaker 6 (36:48):
Right? All right, goodness, even guys, I have an issue.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
I have a.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
Twenty twenty two keya Sports Nightfall YEP, and I have
twenty thousand miles on the top. So I was getting
a vibration out of the right front tire to get
to the dealer, and when they went to take off
the tire, they checked the other three and come to
find out that the tire has poor tire tread debts

(37:14):
at twenty thousand miles and also cracks in the tire.
So I was not concerned. I think it's a dry
rod tire. These tires. The dot that's on the numbers
that are on the tire the sidewall, it gives the
numbers to look up. And the tire was manufactured last
year at twenty one, so those tires are already a

(37:36):
year old that are on by cap that should be
the same year tire twenty two, like I have the
twenty two vehicle.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Well no, So.

Speaker 5 (37:44):
So here's the thing, right, So all all vehicles you
buy in the United States, they're all a year ahead.
So if you're buying a vehicle right now, you're buying
a twenty twenty six. So the I'll be honest with you,
I have no idea why that why that is. But

(38:06):
the tires, that's the manufactured date. So the manufactured date
on your vehicle is probably twenty twenty one. I'd be
surprised if it wasn't.

Speaker 6 (38:18):
So okay, they made it. They made in Korea.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yeah, yeah, okay, So what can you do it? Did
you get it fixed?

Speaker 6 (38:24):
So listen what happened? Second thing happened. I'm gonna make
it quick. I know you guys up for a break.
Same thing. The second time it happened. I told him
straight out of the dealer, I'm not paying out of
pocket like I did the first one. And I says
I wasn't looking for a set of tires, but once
one tire there was gameish goods. Right, So the second

(38:45):
tie happened, QUSI as you know something, I drive the car,
I can handle it. I drove a bus for twenty
six years for the tea. I understand, I can I
can handle I can handle a golf a bit of
a blowout without an accident, but I'm concerned about my
wife on the highway. They should freak out. You haven't
actually got a bit, but anyway, that's for safety reasons.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Actually, yep, I appreciate that. What a bummer.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah, I wish we had more time. I could talk
to you a lot and always enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
Bradley, love being here, and of.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Course we love talking to you out there from state
to state, New England and beyond. I am going to
stick around. Craig's gonna take off and we're gonna talk ghosts.
G you know how to spout who ghosts G H
O S t s ghosts on w b Z
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