July 8, 2025 • 39 mins
Bradley Jay Fills In On NightSide with Dan Rea
Have you purchased a vehicle lately? You may have experienced a little sticker shock! Why are cars so expensive, and is there any way around it? Bradley chatted with Craig Fitzgerald, Automotive Editor with DCI Marketing, and former auto editor with Hemmings, The Boston Globe, and GateHouse Media.
Have you purchased a vehicle lately? You may have experienced a little sticker shock! Why are cars so expensive, and is there any way around it? Bradley chatted with Craig Fitzgerald, Automotive Editor with DCI Marketing, and former auto editor with Hemmings, The Boston Globe, and GateHouse Media.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WVZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, WBZ, Indeed, this is Nightside with Dan ray
On Bradley j for Dan four tonight and tomorrow night.
And we're with Craig Fitzgerald. We're talking cars and we
have we have Jane and Shrewsbury. Jane, I'm going to
you in a second, but I want to throw one
more thing out there. My previous car was a Volkswagen
uh Tiguan, and it had two things.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
That I don't want anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
One it had a terribo yep and the terrible cross problems.
But two it required freemium gas olean and man, that
was expensive.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's costly.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Now I don't have to put premium in and I'm thrilled.
I'm one of the few people thrilled when I buy
Guess because it's so much cheaper than.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It used to be. So was it recommended or required?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I think I don't know. So there's a there's a difference,
all right, quick the difference.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
And the difference is one's required and ones recommended. So
if it's recommended, you can put anything in it, and
you know, save yourself a few bucks.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Let's head up to Shrewsbury and talk to Jane. Hello
janeuine busy.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Hi Bradley and Craig. Great to hear both of your
voices on the radio.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Thanks Jane.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Used to listen to whenever Craig was on. Made for
a very late bedtime, but we always enjoyed hearing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Its nice to hear.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
I have a few questions in comments, that's okay.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Of course, what is about carfax reports?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Because I am looking to replace a couple of older
cars and just that type of report. They don't always
tell you everything that's happened with the car, Like if
you know, there's certain things that kind of get bypassed
in the reporting, be it something routine maintenance that you
know had to have happened, or like an accident that
never report got reported. Just any thoughts about the reliability
(02:03):
of those things.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
The carfax report is great, and if you don't know
what that is, it's basically a vehicle history report. Early on,
the only thing that they provided you was whether or
not the vehicle had ever been totaled, whether it had
been subject to a recall, or if it had been
part of a lemon law. And now you're actually getting
(02:26):
a lot more information, and especially if that vehicle was
serviced at a dealer, you'll see all of those service records,
you know, through the carfax report. They're pretty exhaustive now,
so you know there. I can't remember what the price is,
like forty bucks or something to get a car fact
report for a vehicle totally worth it. As far as
(02:47):
I'm concerned, I think they're kind.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, a lot of times they've already
pulled it, and they have it available for people to
read if you're looking online. Another thing is, I have
a twenty year old low mileage Toyota Siena still has
the timing belt, and I'm thinking about getting a newer one.
It's hard to find a good used newer one, sure is.
(03:12):
But as someone else told me, just hang onto it
until you run it into the ground, because it could
go a couple hundred thousand miles. Right now, it's only
about eighty three thousand miles twenty years old, and things
are starting to go wrong with it. So I'm just
curious if you agree with that idea about keeping it
going another ten or twenty years.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I would hang on to it. And the reason I
say that is as we mentioned before, you can't buy
a Siena without a hybrid drive train. Now you have
to buy the hybrid, and they're all all wheel drive
and they're loaded with stuff. So you know, entry level
(03:53):
price is forty six forty seven thousand dollars and you
can easily be into sixty grand with a with a Sienna.
You know, you know, you make the call whether or
not you think that's worth it or not. But it
is a lot to invest in a vehicle.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I'd love to see you, you know, do the maintenance
on that and and get you know, one hundred thousand
miles out of it in addition to the eighty that
you've got it on got on it already, so you know, uh,
you know, a timing belt, you know, and when they
do the timing belt, they're going to do the water pump,
They're going to do the drive belts, the pulleys, all
of that stuff. They're going to do it all at once,
(04:33):
and that's going to basically make that thing run for
another eighty thousand miles before you need to do it again.
How much does that procedure, I mean, it could easily
run into twenty five hundred bucks if you do everything
which you're going to need to do, so I mean
I would sort of budget for for that much, and
it may be less than that, but you know that
(04:54):
that seems about you know what that's going to run?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Now, that sounds good? Can I ask you something else
more general?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Of course?
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, I'm an old school Consumer Reports reader, and way
back when the hybrids first came out, they were saying
it's not going to pay for itself and kind of
recommending against them. Obviously they've taken off and Toyota has
loads of them now. But is there any place people
should go to calculate whether or not it's even worth
(05:24):
paying extra? I know you like what the new ciana
is you have to get. When I would buy a
youth Santa that doesn't have that, and I would not
buy a all will drive either with the run flat tires,
I don't think but and I don't hate the idea
of a hybrid someday, but in general, a car dealer
told me the only last ten or fifteen years, and
I like vintage cars, so in ten or fifteen years
(05:47):
I would like to be able.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Yell.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Oh. The New York Cabbes have been running priuses for
twenty something years now. These things have three four hundred
thousand miles on them. The batter have lasted well beyond
what everybody said they were going to when they were new,
So I wouldn't worry about that. What I can say
to you is, so your question about where you can
(06:11):
go to see how long it'll take to pay for itself,
go to fuel economy dot Gov and you can actually go,
you know, basically any year, you know, if you're looking
at a used vehicle, you're looking at a twenty twenty
hybrid or whatever. It'll tell you exactly what you should
expect to spend over the course of five years on fuel.
(06:33):
And it'll it'll basically tell you you're either going to spend
more over five years by you know, five hundred dollars
or less, you know, over five years because you get
better average fuel economy. That fuel economy dot Gov is
my source for all of that kind of stuff. It's
really helpful.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Well, that's great, Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Definitely, don't worry about the you know, anybody can work
on a hybrid now, so you can bring a hybrid
to your local mechanic and if and if the battery
does go bad, in it, they'll replace it. And those
cells have gotten so much cheaper than they were, you know,
when those cars were new. All of the kind of
fear about like oh, you know, it's gonna cost me
(07:13):
ten thousand dollars to keep this car running, that's all
kind of gone, you know besides by the wayside at
this point, so.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I would not fear a hybrid. Jane, Thanks a lot,
Thanks Jane, thank you. Okay, I have a question before
we get to Linda and Weymouth. I mentioned that turbo
I had one bad experience. By the way, does.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
The turbo related to using high tests? Somehow? It can
be you don't need to high test. That's funny like that.
That is an old school term high test, high Testmiam.
Did you get the fire Chief the Texico fire Chief
brand fuel Bradley? So, no, no, you A turbo can
(07:57):
be you know, in a performance car, you could be
required to use premium fuel like the sub super WRX
for example. But it's not necessarily true. There are low
pressure turbos that that basically just give you a little
bit of extra power, but aren't at the they're really
(08:18):
their point is not.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know, super high performance. Question on that question. Is
turbos something to stay away with from. I know, I
think I remember you said no, but yeah, and I
and you don't like my thought that, gee, it's another
thing to break, which it did.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
It's another thing to break. But it's also a pretty
simple device, you know. It's it's a basically what it's
doing is recapturing energy from the exhaustream and forcing it
back through the the intake system. So it's a little turbine.
It's just a little thing that spins around and it's
(08:57):
got two bearings in it, you know, and and there's
there there there's coolant that goes to it, but you
know they're there. That's you know, pretty well baked tech,
talent technology. And in twenty twenty five, I wouldn't if you,
I know, you had a bad experience. Yeah, but by
the way, I don't think anybody buy a vehicle that
required high test. I don't know, um, you will. They
(09:25):
had to buy the ethyl I couldn't believe it they
were required to buy ethyl.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I mean for a regular run around car, I wouldn't
never want, you know, a premium fuel requirement, but for
a performance car, you certainly would. You know, that's kind
of the point.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
All right, right, okay, I guess it's a good time
to break and then Linda will go right to you
after this super brief break. On WBZ News Radio ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray and Boston's news radio Bradley.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
J on the night Side tonight and we're with Craig
Fitzgerald's automotive writer and you know, my car guy, and
we're going right to Linda and Weymouth because she's been
waiting a long time. And by the way, Craig has
a little quiz for us after Linda, and then we'll
also get to Beth and Bob. So, Linda, Hi, thanks
for waiting.
Speaker 7 (10:17):
Hi, I am a new car owner.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Excellent. What did you get?
Speaker 7 (10:21):
Replacement A honder let's see HRV.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Oh Honda HRV. So I just drove the accurate version
of that the uh A LX. Is that what it's called?
I can't remember what it's called, but anyways, yes, very nice,
very nice.
Speaker 7 (10:37):
So my shopping I had a board focus and it
would have caused me up with from five thousand because
to get a transmission REPAI place because it's I guess
it has two different computers that it had to communicate
to yep. So I said, I'm going to put it
towards a new car. So I went back to the
dealership down in Hollbrook on Franklin Street that I had
(11:00):
bought a few others from. I got a little discom
too when I did end up the first car he
showed me. It was a black one, nice, with a
lot of too much technology. The windows were shaded. They
were and I said, too much darkness there. And then
I got another, showed another or another. He goes to auction,
(11:23):
so if you have an idea of what you'd like,
he'll look for something like that.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Sure.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
And the other thing is selfious. I got a car
for you and he said, right over here, this white one.
I says, I don't want to be a rolling snow bank.
And it was in the winter time that I was
buying this. But I have an aversion both to black
cars because black at night doesn't show up, and the white,
like I said I don't want, I could have been
(11:51):
so anyway, I got a silver car like I have
had before. And to the little adjusting to get used
to it, a little more space, I've been using it.
I'm coming to downsize and so I've been using the
space as a storage for a bit. But love it good, good,
it's I don't drive a lot of it, but originally
(12:15):
had Oh. I took it to my my mechanic and
had them look it over and they gave you know,
this needs to be tweaked a little bit better and
most mechanics, you know, I had to can't pay a
little bit for it, but it wasn't that excessive.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
But it's always good. It's always good to have somebody
put a set of eyes on a on a car
that you're you're interested in buying.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
I'm not stopping to find the blue Book value. But
he gave me a discount because I was a repeat customer.
And but for financing, it was sending me to a
federal credit union which has lower rates.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
YEP. Federal credit unions are great and you know if
even if you're not a member, you can you can
really quickly become a member and get decent financing from
you know, like, uh, what's the d c U is
a good one. And my I bank at direct in
(13:29):
where's that? Nor need them? Need them? They're great too.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
I worked at the in Boston for federal government.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, Federal Workers Credit Union, which is great. Yep.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
Yeah, but they gave me they would tie me into
Rockland Credit Union. Great way around the corner from me. Hey,
I can deal with it.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Terrific. That's great to hear. You seem like you're an
upbeat person who had an upbeat experience.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
You seem I am. I have a little bit of
a health problem and depression, but this experience, like I said,
I was going back to a tried and true dealership.
I'd bought two other cars from there.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
And yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I'm glad you had a good experience because I think
you know, that's you know what Bradley and I were
talking about. It's like, you have a bad experience, you're
going to tell twenty people about it. You have a
good experience, you might tell five. So now you told
a whole ton of people about it. So that's great.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
I don't think the people out to California are gonna
come by.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I appreciate it. That was funny. Yeah, she says, Can
I say that there?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
I go.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
No, she says it. That's all right, I know, send
that guy, send that guy a few sales. That's okay, sweetheart,
all right, ladies and gentlemen. Let's let's take this quiz together,
all right. So this is from Auto Pacific. This is
a great study. This is UH demand among twenty five
thousand to thirty five thousand dollar vehicle shoppers. Right, so
(15:05):
I'm going to give you a list of things people
looking for. These are the features that they want, and
I'm going to ask you what they want least. All right?
You ready? Features that they that they want least? Which
one do they want least? Right here? So heads up display, leather, upholstery,
(15:25):
p reconfigurable digital day gauge, cluster, panoramic sunroof, welcome lighting
on the interior, nexterior, UH, selectable vehicle drive, modes branded Premium, Motto, wireless,
Apple car Play, heated steering wheel, power adjustable for front
passenger seat, memory driver's seat, and all wheel drive. What
(15:47):
do you think least least among those things? Okay? Should
we wait and see? I have some people, guess you
can ask absolutely if people want to get Now, I
guess my guess, yep, I'll ask you you folks what
you think.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
What are people who are shopping for a car between
thirty five and twenty five thousand dollars what accessory are
they looking for a least?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
What feature are they looking for a least? Read the
list against Okay, here we go. Heads up display, leather upholstery,
a reconfigurable digital gauge cluster, panoramic sunroof, interior and exterior
welcome lighting, selectable vehicle drive modes, branded Premium audio, wireless,
(16:37):
Apple car Play, heated steering wheel, power adjustable front passenger seat,
memory driver's seat, and all wheel drives. All right, I've
written down my answer. Okay, break it, and so if
somebody gets it before before I leave, we will determine
an answer here.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Okay, Now let's talk to We have plenty of time
for beth in Stone.
Speaker 8 (16:59):
Beth Hey, hey, I'll go with heated steering wheel.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Okay, I'm going to write you down for heated steering
wheel and we're going to reveal this in a little bit. Okay,
so keep listening.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
Okay, all right, I will I have a Subaru legacy.
I'm actually driving it now. I have one hundred and
almost one hundred and ninety two.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Thousand, beautiful.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
This is the last year for legacies being made, so
I want one just because it's the last year. But
going forward with that boat well for repairs.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, I mean the legacy. You know, basically all of
Subaru's vehicles they use the same engines, same transmission. So
you know, you're you're you're in pretty safe territory there.
Just keep it maintained and you know you'll you'll do
great and and you know, the legacy where as you
mentioned where it's last year that they're around. If you
(18:01):
can find one, you may be able to get a
halfway decent deal on it too. So yeah, definitely keep
your eyes open. I love the current legacy. I wish
more people recognize what that car is. It's the current
car is stunning. It's really beautiful. So I hope you
do find one and really enjoy it.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
Thanks, Beth, Trust me, the salesman calls me every other day.
Oh he's got one great happy summer.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Glad you're thank you, thank you, Thanks bye bye.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Okay, we still have time to talk to Bill and
welstair works.
Speaker 9 (18:37):
Hey Bill, really, welcome home, welcome home, Thank you. Hey.
I get an unusual on the other end of the extreme,
I'm a very very low driver. I bought a twenty
one out of a seven as a final gift to
myself about four years ago.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Very nice, very night.
Speaker 9 (18:53):
Yeah, a seven plug in hybrid. I did that not
because I'm environmentalist. I just didically. I thought the resale
value retain value would be a little better when and
if I traded it in. Because that sound possible.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Who knows, right, Yeah, I mean it's it's possible.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
The weird thing about plugging hybrids is is that as
we you know, people have more experience with these things,
we start to realize that most people don't plug them
in at all.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
So, yeah, can if we run into the news I
get a key question, I want to ask you that.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Sure, go ahead ask you.
Speaker 9 (19:30):
Because I only do about three four maybe one thousand
miles a year being retired in the city of Wista.
You know where everything is around the corner, everything is
easy to get to. No highway driving to speak of.
Maybe eighty ninety percent of my driving is on the hybrid,
on the battery, right on the electric. Now when it
comes to oil changes, I've been doing it yearly for
(19:53):
four years because that's the warrant thing. I didn't want
them to find the cause for any problem if it developed.
That makes sense. Right now, I'm going forward I'm not
really wondering. I'm not trying to save one hundred bucks.
I don't want anybody touching that car. It doesn't have
to be touched. Yeah, So in other words, I'm trying
to get that is do I if I'm only putting
a thousand miles a year, not even a thousand miles
(20:13):
on the on the combustion engine, do I want to
change that oil every year or maybe stretch to two years.
I know you're probably gonna say, well, you've got temperatifferentials,
so you've got some moisture developing inside the box.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Right, answer that question after the news. We'll catch you
after the news.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
You hold on, we'll have an answer. I think I
know the answer. Uh, let's do the news and find
out the answer to that question.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
On WBZ.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
All right, more with Craig Fitzgerald on WBZY. Craig Fitzgerald
automotive writer, and we're talking car stuff, man, everyone loves
talking car stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I'm gonna I'm gonna give you the answer on the
oil change.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Okay, right, let's uh, I'm gonna reset that just before
the break. Bill from Worcester asked a question. He said,
I got this fancy Audi and I know I'm supposed
to get the oil changed every year, but I don't
drive it much and I really don't want people touching
it unnecessarily.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Craig, do I really need to get the oil changed
every year even though I only drive not much? And
the answer is, it's fully synthetic, so it should last
you a good long time. You're still supposed to replace
that oil once a year, you see, you're really so
what I would say is you could probably the next
(21:38):
time you get your oil changed, you can send a
little bit of that out to get analyzed and see
what it's doing in there. If it's not if there's nothing,
you know, if it looks like it's fresh oil to
these people. If they send you a report back and
they say it's looked like it looks like you just
poured it out of the bottle, then maybe go eighteen months.
Maybe go eighteen months, but you know, you know it
(22:00):
on the safe side, I'd change it because there's so
much like oil sitting there gets dirty, just like when
it's running. So Bill loves that car so much. I
know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
He's going to get into the thirteenth fourteenth, fifteenth month
instead visualizing dirty grubby oil grinding his parts down, and
he's gonna go out and do it. Whereas he gets
a new oil and everything. You can feel it different,
going to lose sleep.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
You can feel a difference. Don't you think you can
feel a difference in your car when you get an
all change? I love, I love fresh oil in a car.
It's the best.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Okay, let's get do the quiz again. We have a couple,
we have a couple of answers. We're giving you a quiz.
Which of these options do you think is the least
desired for shoppers looking for a carpentryen twenty five and
thirty five thousand dollars the list again, please, Craig.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
So this comes from Auto Pacific. It is heads up display,
leather upholstery, reconfigurable digital gauge, cluster, panoramic sunroof, interior exterior
welcome lighting, selectable vehicle drive modes, branded premium audio like
Bowse Audio, wireless, Apple car Play, heated steering wheel, power,
(23:15):
adjustable front passenger seat, memory for the driver's seat position,
and all wheel drive. Okay, so Alex and millis what
do you think?
Speaker 9 (23:24):
Uh do you want?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Do you want to answer that? And what would your
answer be the least desired option?
Speaker 5 (23:31):
I always love my sun Roof probably, uh, I know
what was the what was my choice?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
No, we can't go to the list again. Let's let's
move on. What did you call about?
Speaker 5 (23:44):
Well, I was going to ask, I think the Toyotas
and the Sugar Roofs are the best cause in the planet.
That's that's my own personal feeling. Okay, So my wife
has a bright new Toyota, but I have a two
sixteen sugar Roo cross track with like one hundred and
sixty thousand miles on it. And my question is, okay,
(24:04):
whatever I'm doing, like it's it's still running, you know. Uh,
I've had since day one. It was in the showroom
when I bought it. So do they last, you know,
like a Toyota. Do you think sepos have a good reputation?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
They do? Go ahead, go ahead, Sorry, I didn't mean.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
To, And I was gonna say, am I wasting wasting
money putting in every now and then putting in a
prime rather high test fuel? It call it doesn't call
for high test of course.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, so is so. Yes, I would say you're wasting money.
You don't need to do that. There's so it's not
going to run any better with premium in it. The opposite,
The opposite may be true. So like when Bradley, you know,
when he mentioned that his vehicle had premium fuel required
(24:56):
like that, you have to run it so anything else.
It's gonna run on anything, and it's gonna run fine.
So I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
And as far as the reliability on that car, I mean,
if you're keeping up with the maintenance. The super Ru's
you know, had a reputation for having a bad head
gas gets years ago. I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Just keep you know, keep the general maintenance going on
that and you should be fine. Okay, there there you're
(25:25):
you can easily get two hundred thousand miles out of
that car. Thank you, Alex.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
All Right, we'll see Bob wants to answer, all right,
quiz If not with after Bob, we'll just uh, I'll
give you my answer.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Okay, we'll see what the answer is. Sounds good?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Bob and Cambridge, Hi, do you wanna take a guess
at what's the least desired option of those of those listed.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Yeah, they heated uh STERI wheel. But I asked a question,
sure thing? Did I pass?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yep? No, No, that's not that we're gonna we'll get
to the answer at the end. But you are number
two selected heated wheel.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Okay, okay, Now what I got is I got a
two thousand and nine Honda that I bought my son Brando.
I told you you graduate high school by a brand
new car. We did went up to see er any bark.
It's a four cylinder. It's got about one hundred and
seventy eight thousand miles on it. The transmission it runs okay,
except for the transmission. Now, the first shift it bangs
(26:26):
a little, and all the other shifts, all the other
shifts after that are perfect. However, if I start off
and uh, don't go up too high on the APMs
and drive it like I drove my grandfather's Desto, you know,
you let off on the gas transmission shifts like it works. Fine,
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Have you had the transmission fluid replaced in that.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I haven't. I didn't want to do that because I
did that on one of my commercial vehicles and I
was told I should have left it alone because of
what particles and everything I d putting a new transmission
in that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It it's you know, that's a it's your sort of
rolling the dice a little bit. And I think the
only what I might do is I might drain a
little bit of fluid out of that and see what's
going on it. If it's still pink, I mean, if
you pull the stick on it and it's still pink,
you know, I wouldn't worry about that. I would change
(27:22):
the fluid in it. That may help you.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Okay, I'll start. I'll start with the stick.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, pull a stick and see what that
looks like. Smell it. If it smells burnt, you know,
then yeah. And if it's real brown, that that's not
so hot.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
And if you you may be able to feel particles
in it.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
So all right, I got another one on the car.
I'm hearing this thing about Oxcock here and cashield them
them plans any good for somebody like me right now?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
With that, I would not do it. And I don't
think they'd sell you a plan on that car. I
think it's too old. But but honestly, I mean, I
think they're they have limits, you know, on how old
a vehicle that they will that they will write a
policy for. But I would not do it on something
that old. You're much better off just you know, hey,
you know, if you need to replace a transmission and
(28:12):
transmission in that vehicle, it's going to be a lot
less than buying a new car, and it's going to
be probably pretty close to what a full extended warranty
would cost you. All Right, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Let's say answer the question, repeat the question, and I'll
tell you what I guess.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
What is the least the thing that people are least
interested in in the twenty five to thirty five thousand
dollars segment? So heads up display, leather upholstery, reconfigurable digital
day gauge, cluster, panoramic sunroof, interior and exterior welcome lighting,
selectable vehicle drive modes, branded Premium, Audo Audio, wireless, Apple
(28:54):
car Play, heated steering wheel, power, adjustable front passenger seat,
memory for a driver's seat position, and all wheel drive.
All right, I'm going to give you my reasoning.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, my reasoning is, you wouldn't have asked the question
if the answer wasn't surprising, and the most surprising answer
would be all wheel drive.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Okay, that's my answer, all wheel drive, that's your answer. Okay,
So we had all wheel drive and then we had
heated wheel. We got two votes for heated wheel. What
it actually is is leather upholstery. I was feeling so so,
so check this up, all right, check this out. Eleven
percent said that they were interested in owning a vehicle
(29:31):
with leather or leather upholstery at that at that price range.
All wheel drive is only twenty four percent though, So
none of these things, none of these features big ticket.
There is a big ticket like that. All wheel drive
is four thousand dollars. Like, you know, the difference between
a vehicle it's got front wheel drive and one another
that's all wheel drive is above four grand. That's a
(29:53):
lot of money for something that you don't necessarily want, right,
So now, what what I can do is now look
at that and start to eliminate start yeah, and start
to look at what's going on in the market. So
like the Chevy Tracks, which I don't think anybody is
all that excited about the Chevy Tracks, but they sold
(30:15):
two hundred thousand of those last year. They Chevy didn't
sell anything more except for the full sized pickups. Then
they sold the Chevy Tracks last just because it's affordable. Exactly,
it's affordable. That's the entry level. So you've saved yourself.
You've got something that looks like an suv, but you
saved yourself a ton of money by not buying the
(30:36):
all wheel drive. So that's the truck. That's how to
beat the high prices. You get a vehicle that does
not have things that you don't really want right right,
And the problem now is that a lot of these
things are sort of built in. You don't get the
option to say I don't want you know, most people
are going to want air conditioning, most people are gonna
want power windows. But you know, you don't have the
(30:58):
option to say I don't want all wheel drive in
some cars, right and a lot of cars, like there's
a lot of you know, vehicles out there. You just
don't have the choice. You're gonna get it one way
or another. So the the what this exercise from Auto
Pacific helped me figure out was like, there's a market
for our car with nothing on it, with or with
(31:20):
not a lot on it. So that's the slate that
we had you had mentioned before. That's a little tiny
electric pickup. It's a regular cab pickup with a tiny
little bed. They're gonna come out in twenty twenty six.
They're really interesting to me because you buy the things
that you want. Do you you don't want to rate it?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I want to break and get drilled down on this. Yeah,
let's do you actually want one? So we'll find out
about this really cheap strippy as that is a stripper
father used to call it. And it's pretty interesting and
if if Craig wants one, well it can't be oh bed,
So we'll find out about the slate in a moment.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
On WBZ, You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Hello, if you just joined us, It's Bradley J. For
Dan Ray on night Side, and our guest is Craig Fitzgerald,
and we're talking cars and how basically how to save
money or more accurately, get a good value in this
time when car prices are out of sight and one
(32:26):
of the tricks is to buy a vehicle that doesn't
have anything you don't want. And such a vehicle is
this new thing, I guess it's pretty new called a slate.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
It's actually it's actually there was a there's a business
incubator out in Framingham that provided a lot of seed
money for this. Their factory is in Michigan. Amazon's invested
a ton of money in it, and it's a small
regular cab really pick up almost the size of the
(33:03):
original Ford Ranger, if you can picture that. And the
deal with this thing. They're all electric. They were originally
supposed to be under twenty grand, but with the EV
tax credit going away, it's probably going to be about
twenty five grand. But the interesting thing about it is
that it doesn't come with anything you don't want, so
(33:24):
it has a number of features that everybody's gonna want.
Air conditioning, power, windows, power steering. That's it. If you
want a radio, you buy the radio they basically use.
They use almost like one of those JBL Bluetooth speakers,
and they have a little rack on the dash for it,
and you use your phone as your radio. I mean
(33:46):
everything that I want music and podcast and all of
that kind of stuff. I can listen to on my phone.
I can stream, you know, WBZ, I can do whatever
I want from my phone. So that's innovative to me.
And then you can, like you can configure it so
that it has an suv back to it or a
pickup truck back. It's got racks that you can put
(34:08):
on it. It's a really really cool little vehicle, and
it's the perfect size for me, Like I haven't I
haven't yet. So that's the thing is, I'm I'm, I'm
I'm awaiting the opportunity to drive one. I know several
people who work there now and I'm really really excited.
They are over the moon working for this company. So
(34:31):
that's a that's a plus.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
That would be a great trend if that was a
case a striving to get the price down. Yeah, and
just all the things that people want on the carp YEP.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
That's the idea is, you know, every kind of everywhere
else in the world, you the entry level vehicles are
tiny and they're not loaded up full of equipment, and here,
you know, we vehicles tend to be larger and they
tend to be loaded up even at the even at
the entry level.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Real quick ticket, bust a couple of myths and talk
to Michael and Adelborough. Michael will have a minute for you.
Let's bust two myths. Okay, myth number one. All wheel
drive is important.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Non important. Tires are important.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
It's you've been you've been conned into believing all wheel
drive is important, and you pay a lot.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
That's a big ticket item. Yeah, it's I mean, it's
a four thousand dollars difference.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Okay, don't get four whe don't get all we'll drive
slash forth.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
I'm not saying don't get it, but be aware of
what you're buying. Yeah, you don't need.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
It, probably don't need it, and that saves your money. Right,
What was the other thing? Oh, suv is safer than
a non suv.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Bigger is always going to be safer than smaller. It's
always going to be so you know, there is some uh,
there's some evidence that a larger suv is safer for you,
not necessarily safer for anybody else. Not safer for pedestrians
that you run into. Not safer for the small car
(36:04):
that you run into.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So oh, all right, I thought you had told me
that it was not necessarily safer.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Every everything is crash tested, but within its class. I see, right,
So bigger is always going to be.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Safe, all right, Michael and Ailborough, we have Oh gee,
I don't know two minutes.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
What can Michael we do?
Speaker 6 (36:25):
Oh I am glad you have you back, Bradley. I'm
excited about the little pickup. I thought when Ford brought
the Ranger back it would be small again. I had
the Ford Courier, which was a miles so that thing
was incredible. Yeah, I had the I think it was
I can't remember the exact year, but I got to
(36:46):
tell you a light vehicle. But it flew through the snow.
So I don't want to get into that thing about
you know, you really have to have every vehicle for
the snow. Yeah, that's debatable.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
But.
Speaker 6 (36:59):
One cam put out a certain cow say at the
end of the subject. The first thing I said is
they're gonna They're gonna pull that off the road. I'm
talking about the Chevy Volt. Now, was that legendary and
one of the kind the Vault.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yes, I liked the Vault a lot. The Vault was
an interesting vehicle because it was it was you could
run it electric, but then also not you could You
also had a gas engine that was basically a generator
in it. So they were pretty cool vehicles. I like
those a lot. I wonder if maybe what you're talking
about is the EV one, which was GM's first electric
(37:39):
vehicle that they pulled out a production like. They wouldn't
even let anybody buy it. They were lease only and
they all got returned and then they all got destroyed,
which was kind of like that was kind of controversial
at the time. It's less so now, but that was
an interesting piece of history. Thanks Michael.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I have a question that's super quick answer because I
only have a minute. I think you like the new
Ford Bronco. I to me, it looks like Bronco too.
Why couldn't they have made a real Bronco. So there's
two Bronco second hands. There's there's the.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Bronco and then there's the Bronco Sport. Oh, I didn't know.
And the Bronco Sport looks more like a Bronco too.
The Bronco looks more like an original Bronco from sixty eight.
I kind of like it, although I like it less
than when I first saw it. What made it like
it less?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I guess I'm just it's almost like it's trying too hard.
I was disappointed. Yeah, it's I like it, and I
actually the crazy thing is I love the Broncos sport.
I think that it's so nice to drive people looks
like the bronc Yeah, it's great, it's really great. Greg
with Ceryl you are the best. We'll have you on,
thanks Man whenever I can. Coming up next, we have
(38:56):
Dave Wedge.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Who is a Boston area writer and he has a
new book, well a book on Marvin Hagler. So we're
going to talk to Dave, find out about him, find
out about marvelous Marvin Hagler.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Looking forward to that here
Speaker 2 (39:11):
On WBC News Radio ten thirty and the number is
six one, seven, two, five four, ten thirty
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WVZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
All right, WBZ, Indeed, this is Nightside with Dan ray
On Bradley j for Dan four tonight and tomorrow night.
And we're with Craig Fitzgerald. We're talking cars and we
have we have Jane and Shrewsbury. Jane, I'm going to
you in a second, but I want to throw one
more thing out there. My previous car was a Volkswagen
uh Tiguan, and it had two things.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
That I don't want anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
One it had a terribo yep and the terrible cross problems.
But two it required freemium gas olean and man, that
was expensive.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's costly.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Now I don't have to put premium in and I'm thrilled.
I'm one of the few people thrilled when I buy
Guess because it's so much cheaper than.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
It used to be. So was it recommended or required?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I think I don't know. So there's a there's a difference,
all right, quick the difference.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
And the difference is one's required and ones recommended. So
if it's recommended, you can put anything in it, and
you know, save yourself a few bucks.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Let's head up to Shrewsbury and talk to Jane. Hello
janeuine busy.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Hi Bradley and Craig. Great to hear both of your
voices on the radio.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Thanks Jane.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Used to listen to whenever Craig was on. Made for
a very late bedtime, but we always enjoyed hearing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Its nice to hear.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
I have a few questions in comments, that's okay.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
Of course, what is about carfax reports?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Because I am looking to replace a couple of older
cars and just that type of report. They don't always
tell you everything that's happened with the car, Like if
you know, there's certain things that kind of get bypassed
in the reporting, be it something routine maintenance that you
know had to have happened, or like an accident that
never report got reported. Just any thoughts about the reliability
(02:03):
of those things.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
The carfax report is great, and if you don't know
what that is, it's basically a vehicle history report. Early on,
the only thing that they provided you was whether or
not the vehicle had ever been totaled, whether it had
been subject to a recall, or if it had been
part of a lemon law. And now you're actually getting
(02:26):
a lot more information, and especially if that vehicle was
serviced at a dealer, you'll see all of those service records,
you know, through the carfax report. They're pretty exhaustive now,
so you know there. I can't remember what the price is,
like forty bucks or something to get a car fact
report for a vehicle totally worth it. As far as
(02:47):
I'm concerned, I think they're kind.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, a lot of times they've already
pulled it, and they have it available for people to
read if you're looking online. Another thing is, I have
a twenty year old low mileage Toyota Siena still has
the timing belt, and I'm thinking about getting a newer one.
It's hard to find a good used newer one, sure is.
(03:12):
But as someone else told me, just hang onto it
until you run it into the ground, because it could
go a couple hundred thousand miles. Right now, it's only
about eighty three thousand miles twenty years old, and things
are starting to go wrong with it. So I'm just
curious if you agree with that idea about keeping it
going another ten or twenty years.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I would hang on to it. And the reason I
say that is as we mentioned before, you can't buy
a Siena without a hybrid drive train. Now you have
to buy the hybrid, and they're all all wheel drive
and they're loaded with stuff. So you know, entry level
(03:53):
price is forty six forty seven thousand dollars and you
can easily be into sixty grand with a with a Sienna.
You know, you know, you make the call whether or
not you think that's worth it or not. But it
is a lot to invest in a vehicle.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I'd love to see you, you know, do the maintenance
on that and and get you know, one hundred thousand
miles out of it in addition to the eighty that
you've got it on got on it already, so you know, uh,
you know, a timing belt, you know, and when they
do the timing belt, they're going to do the water pump,
They're going to do the drive belts, the pulleys, all
of that stuff. They're going to do it all at once,
(04:33):
and that's going to basically make that thing run for
another eighty thousand miles before you need to do it again.
How much does that procedure, I mean, it could easily
run into twenty five hundred bucks if you do everything
which you're going to need to do, so I mean
I would sort of budget for for that much, and
it may be less than that, but you know that
(04:54):
that seems about you know what that's going to run?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Now, that sounds good? Can I ask you something else
more general?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Of course?
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Well, I'm an old school Consumer Reports reader, and way
back when the hybrids first came out, they were saying
it's not going to pay for itself and kind of
recommending against them. Obviously they've taken off and Toyota has
loads of them now. But is there any place people
should go to calculate whether or not it's even worth
(05:24):
paying extra? I know you like what the new ciana
is you have to get. When I would buy a
youth Santa that doesn't have that, and I would not
buy a all will drive either with the run flat tires,
I don't think but and I don't hate the idea
of a hybrid someday, but in general, a car dealer
told me the only last ten or fifteen years, and
I like vintage cars, so in ten or fifteen years
(05:47):
I would like to be able.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Yell.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Oh. The New York Cabbes have been running priuses for
twenty something years now. These things have three four hundred
thousand miles on them. The batter have lasted well beyond
what everybody said they were going to when they were new,
So I wouldn't worry about that. What I can say
to you is, so your question about where you can
(06:11):
go to see how long it'll take to pay for itself,
go to fuel economy dot Gov and you can actually go,
you know, basically any year, you know, if you're looking
at a used vehicle, you're looking at a twenty twenty
hybrid or whatever. It'll tell you exactly what you should
expect to spend over the course of five years on fuel.
(06:33):
And it'll it'll basically tell you you're either going to spend
more over five years by you know, five hundred dollars
or less, you know, over five years because you get
better average fuel economy. That fuel economy dot Gov is
my source for all of that kind of stuff. It's
really helpful.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Well, that's great, Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Definitely, don't worry about the you know, anybody can work
on a hybrid now, so you can bring a hybrid
to your local mechanic and if and if the battery
does go bad, in it, they'll replace it. And those
cells have gotten so much cheaper than they were, you know,
when those cars were new. All of the kind of
fear about like oh, you know, it's gonna cost me
(07:13):
ten thousand dollars to keep this car running, that's all
kind of gone, you know besides by the wayside at
this point, so.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I would not fear a hybrid. Jane, Thanks a lot,
Thanks Jane, thank you. Okay, I have a question before
we get to Linda and Weymouth. I mentioned that turbo
I had one bad experience. By the way, does.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
The turbo related to using high tests? Somehow? It can
be you don't need to high test. That's funny like that.
That is an old school term high test, high Testmiam.
Did you get the fire Chief the Texico fire Chief
brand fuel Bradley? So, no, no, you A turbo can
(07:57):
be you know, in a performance car, you could be
required to use premium fuel like the sub super WRX
for example. But it's not necessarily true. There are low
pressure turbos that that basically just give you a little
bit of extra power, but aren't at the they're really
(08:18):
their point is not.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know, super high performance. Question on that question. Is
turbos something to stay away with from. I know, I
think I remember you said no, but yeah, and I
and you don't like my thought that, gee, it's another
thing to break, which it did.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
It's another thing to break. But it's also a pretty
simple device, you know. It's it's a basically what it's
doing is recapturing energy from the exhaustream and forcing it
back through the the intake system. So it's a little turbine.
It's just a little thing that spins around and it's
(08:57):
got two bearings in it, you know, and and there's
there there there's coolant that goes to it, but you
know they're there. That's you know, pretty well baked tech,
talent technology. And in twenty twenty five, I wouldn't if you,
I know, you had a bad experience. Yeah, but by
the way, I don't think anybody buy a vehicle that
required high test. I don't know, um, you will. They
(09:25):
had to buy the ethyl I couldn't believe it they
were required to buy ethyl.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I mean for a regular run around car, I wouldn't
never want, you know, a premium fuel requirement, but for
a performance car, you certainly would. You know, that's kind
of the point.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
All right, right, okay, I guess it's a good time
to break and then Linda will go right to you
after this super brief break. On WBZ News Radio ten thirty.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray and Boston's news radio Bradley.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
J on the night Side tonight and we're with Craig
Fitzgerald's automotive writer and you know, my car guy, and
we're going right to Linda and Weymouth because she's been
waiting a long time. And by the way, Craig has
a little quiz for us after Linda, and then we'll
also get to Beth and Bob. So, Linda, Hi, thanks
for waiting.
Speaker 7 (10:17):
Hi, I am a new car owner.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Excellent. What did you get?
Speaker 7 (10:21):
Replacement A honder let's see HRV.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Oh Honda HRV. So I just drove the accurate version
of that the uh A LX. Is that what it's called?
I can't remember what it's called, but anyways, yes, very nice,
very nice.
Speaker 7 (10:37):
So my shopping I had a board focus and it
would have caused me up with from five thousand because
to get a transmission REPAI place because it's I guess
it has two different computers that it had to communicate
to yep. So I said, I'm going to put it
towards a new car. So I went back to the
dealership down in Hollbrook on Franklin Street that I had
(11:00):
bought a few others from. I got a little discom
too when I did end up the first car he
showed me. It was a black one, nice, with a
lot of too much technology. The windows were shaded. They
were and I said, too much darkness there. And then
I got another, showed another or another. He goes to auction,
(11:23):
so if you have an idea of what you'd like,
he'll look for something like that.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Sure.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
And the other thing is selfious. I got a car
for you and he said, right over here, this white one.
I says, I don't want to be a rolling snow bank.
And it was in the winter time that I was
buying this. But I have an aversion both to black
cars because black at night doesn't show up, and the white,
like I said I don't want, I could have been
(11:51):
so anyway, I got a silver car like I have
had before. And to the little adjusting to get used
to it, a little more space, I've been using it.
I'm coming to downsize and so I've been using the
space as a storage for a bit. But love it good, good,
it's I don't drive a lot of it, but originally
(12:15):
had Oh. I took it to my my mechanic and
had them look it over and they gave you know,
this needs to be tweaked a little bit better and
most mechanics, you know, I had to can't pay a
little bit for it, but it wasn't that excessive.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
But it's always good. It's always good to have somebody
put a set of eyes on a on a car
that you're you're interested in buying.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
I'm not stopping to find the blue Book value. But
he gave me a discount because I was a repeat customer.
And but for financing, it was sending me to a
federal credit union which has lower rates.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
YEP. Federal credit unions are great and you know if
even if you're not a member, you can you can
really quickly become a member and get decent financing from
you know, like, uh, what's the d c U is
a good one. And my I bank at direct in
(13:29):
where's that? Nor need them? Need them? They're great too.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
I worked at the in Boston for federal government.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, Federal Workers Credit Union, which is great. Yep.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
Yeah, but they gave me they would tie me into
Rockland Credit Union. Great way around the corner from me. Hey,
I can deal with it.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Terrific. That's great to hear. You seem like you're an
upbeat person who had an upbeat experience.
Speaker 7 (13:58):
You seem I am. I have a little bit of
a health problem and depression, but this experience, like I said,
I was going back to a tried and true dealership.
I'd bought two other cars from there.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
And yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I'm glad you had a good experience because I think
you know, that's you know what Bradley and I were
talking about. It's like, you have a bad experience, you're
going to tell twenty people about it. You have a
good experience, you might tell five. So now you told
a whole ton of people about it. So that's great.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
I don't think the people out to California are gonna
come by.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I appreciate it. That was funny. Yeah, she says, Can
I say that there?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
I go.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
No, she says it. That's all right, I know, send
that guy, send that guy a few sales. That's okay, sweetheart,
all right, ladies and gentlemen. Let's let's take this quiz together,
all right. So this is from Auto Pacific. This is
a great study. This is UH demand among twenty five
thousand to thirty five thousand dollar vehicle shoppers. Right, so
(15:05):
I'm going to give you a list of things people
looking for. These are the features that they want, and
I'm going to ask you what they want least. All right?
You ready? Features that they that they want least? Which
one do they want least? Right here? So heads up display, leather, upholstery,
(15:25):
p reconfigurable digital day gauge, cluster, panoramic sunroof, welcome lighting
on the interior, nexterior, UH, selectable vehicle drive, modes branded Premium, Motto, wireless,
Apple car Play, heated steering wheel, power adjustable for front
passenger seat, memory driver's seat, and all wheel drive. What
(15:47):
do you think least least among those things? Okay? Should
we wait and see? I have some people, guess you
can ask absolutely if people want to get Now, I
guess my guess, yep, I'll ask you you folks what
you think.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
What are people who are shopping for a car between
thirty five and twenty five thousand dollars what accessory are
they looking for a least?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
What feature are they looking for a least? Read the
list against Okay, here we go. Heads up display, leather upholstery,
a reconfigurable digital gauge cluster, panoramic sunroof, interior and exterior
welcome lighting, selectable vehicle drive modes, branded Premium audio, wireless,
(16:37):
Apple car Play, heated steering wheel, power adjustable front passenger seat,
memory driver's seat, and all wheel drives. All right, I've
written down my answer. Okay, break it, and so if
somebody gets it before before I leave, we will determine
an answer here.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Okay, Now let's talk to We have plenty of time
for beth in Stone.
Speaker 8 (16:59):
Beth Hey, hey, I'll go with heated steering wheel.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Okay, I'm going to write you down for heated steering
wheel and we're going to reveal this in a little bit. Okay,
so keep listening.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
Okay, all right, I will I have a Subaru legacy.
I'm actually driving it now. I have one hundred and
almost one hundred and ninety two.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Thousand, beautiful.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
This is the last year for legacies being made, so
I want one just because it's the last year. But
going forward with that boat well for repairs.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, I mean the legacy. You know, basically all of
Subaru's vehicles they use the same engines, same transmission. So
you know, you're you're you're in pretty safe territory there.
Just keep it maintained and you know you'll you'll do
great and and you know, the legacy where as you
mentioned where it's last year that they're around. If you
(18:01):
can find one, you may be able to get a
halfway decent deal on it too. So yeah, definitely keep
your eyes open. I love the current legacy. I wish
more people recognize what that car is. It's the current
car is stunning. It's really beautiful. So I hope you
do find one and really enjoy it.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
Thanks, Beth, Trust me, the salesman calls me every other day.
Oh he's got one great happy summer.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Glad you're thank you, thank you, Thanks bye bye.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Okay, we still have time to talk to Bill and
welstair works.
Speaker 9 (18:37):
Hey Bill, really, welcome home, welcome home, Thank you. Hey.
I get an unusual on the other end of the extreme,
I'm a very very low driver. I bought a twenty
one out of a seven as a final gift to
myself about four years ago.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Very nice, very night.
Speaker 9 (18:53):
Yeah, a seven plug in hybrid. I did that not
because I'm environmentalist. I just didically. I thought the resale
value retain value would be a little better when and
if I traded it in. Because that sound possible.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Who knows, right, Yeah, I mean it's it's possible.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
The weird thing about plugging hybrids is is that as
we you know, people have more experience with these things,
we start to realize that most people don't plug them
in at all.
Speaker 9 (19:24):
So, yeah, can if we run into the news I
get a key question, I want to ask you that.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Sure, go ahead ask you.
Speaker 9 (19:30):
Because I only do about three four maybe one thousand
miles a year being retired in the city of Wista.
You know where everything is around the corner, everything is
easy to get to. No highway driving to speak of.
Maybe eighty ninety percent of my driving is on the hybrid,
on the battery, right on the electric. Now when it
comes to oil changes, I've been doing it yearly for
(19:53):
four years because that's the warrant thing. I didn't want
them to find the cause for any problem if it developed.
That makes sense. Right now, I'm going forward I'm not
really wondering. I'm not trying to save one hundred bucks.
I don't want anybody touching that car. It doesn't have
to be touched. Yeah, So in other words, I'm trying
to get that is do I if I'm only putting
a thousand miles a year, not even a thousand miles
(20:13):
on the on the combustion engine, do I want to
change that oil every year or maybe stretch to two years.
I know you're probably gonna say, well, you've got temperatifferentials,
so you've got some moisture developing inside the box.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Right, answer that question after the news. We'll catch you
after the news.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
You hold on, we'll have an answer. I think I
know the answer. Uh, let's do the news and find
out the answer to that question.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
On WBZ.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
All right, more with Craig Fitzgerald on WBZY. Craig Fitzgerald
automotive writer, and we're talking car stuff, man, everyone loves
talking car stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
I'm gonna I'm gonna give you the answer on the
oil change.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Okay, right, let's uh, I'm gonna reset that just before
the break. Bill from Worcester asked a question. He said,
I got this fancy Audi and I know I'm supposed
to get the oil changed every year, but I don't
drive it much and I really don't want people touching
it unnecessarily.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Craig, do I really need to get the oil changed
every year even though I only drive not much? And
the answer is, it's fully synthetic, so it should last
you a good long time. You're still supposed to replace
that oil once a year, you see, you're really so
what I would say is you could probably the next
(21:38):
time you get your oil changed, you can send a
little bit of that out to get analyzed and see
what it's doing in there. If it's not if there's nothing,
you know, if it looks like it's fresh oil to
these people. If they send you a report back and
they say it's looked like it looks like you just
poured it out of the bottle, then maybe go eighteen months.
Maybe go eighteen months, but you know, you know it
(22:00):
on the safe side, I'd change it because there's so
much like oil sitting there gets dirty, just like when
it's running. So Bill loves that car so much. I
know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
He's going to get into the thirteenth fourteenth, fifteenth month
instead visualizing dirty grubby oil grinding his parts down, and
he's gonna go out and do it. Whereas he gets
a new oil and everything. You can feel it different,
going to lose sleep.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
You can feel a difference. Don't you think you can
feel a difference in your car when you get an
all change? I love, I love fresh oil in a car.
It's the best.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Okay, let's get do the quiz again. We have a couple,
we have a couple of answers. We're giving you a quiz.
Which of these options do you think is the least
desired for shoppers looking for a carpentryen twenty five and
thirty five thousand dollars the list again, please, Craig.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
So this comes from Auto Pacific. It is heads up display,
leather upholstery, reconfigurable digital gauge, cluster, panoramic sunroof, interior exterior
welcome lighting, selectable vehicle drive modes, branded premium audio like
Bowse Audio, wireless, Apple car Play, heated steering wheel, power,
(23:15):
adjustable front passenger seat, memory for the driver's seat position,
and all wheel drive. Okay, so Alex and millis what
do you think?
Speaker 9 (23:24):
Uh do you want?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Do you want to answer that? And what would your
answer be the least desired option?
Speaker 5 (23:31):
I always love my sun Roof probably, uh, I know
what was the what was my choice?
Speaker 3 (23:38):
No, we can't go to the list again. Let's let's
move on. What did you call about?
Speaker 5 (23:44):
Well, I was going to ask, I think the Toyotas
and the Sugar Roofs are the best cause in the planet.
That's that's my own personal feeling. Okay, So my wife
has a bright new Toyota, but I have a two
sixteen sugar Roo cross track with like one hundred and
sixty thousand miles on it. And my question is, okay,
(24:04):
whatever I'm doing, like it's it's still running, you know. Uh,
I've had since day one. It was in the showroom
when I bought it. So do they last, you know,
like a Toyota. Do you think sepos have a good reputation?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
They do? Go ahead, go ahead, Sorry, I didn't mean.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
To, And I was gonna say, am I wasting wasting
money putting in every now and then putting in a
prime rather high test fuel? It call it doesn't call
for high test of course.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, so is so. Yes, I would say you're wasting money.
You don't need to do that. There's so it's not
going to run any better with premium in it. The opposite,
The opposite may be true. So like when Bradley, you know,
when he mentioned that his vehicle had premium fuel required
(24:56):
like that, you have to run it so anything else.
It's gonna run on anything, and it's gonna run fine.
So I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
And as far as the reliability on that car, I mean,
if you're keeping up with the maintenance. The super Ru's
you know, had a reputation for having a bad head
gas gets years ago. I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Just keep you know, keep the general maintenance going on
that and you should be fine. Okay, there there you're
(25:25):
you can easily get two hundred thousand miles out of
that car. Thank you, Alex.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
All Right, we'll see Bob wants to answer, all right,
quiz If not with after Bob, we'll just uh, I'll
give you my answer.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Okay, we'll see what the answer is. Sounds good?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Bob and Cambridge, Hi, do you wanna take a guess
at what's the least desired option of those of those listed.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Yeah, they heated uh STERI wheel. But I asked a question,
sure thing? Did I pass?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yep? No, No, that's not that we're gonna we'll get
to the answer at the end. But you are number
two selected heated wheel.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Okay, okay, Now what I got is I got a
two thousand and nine Honda that I bought my son Brando.
I told you you graduate high school by a brand
new car. We did went up to see er any bark.
It's a four cylinder. It's got about one hundred and
seventy eight thousand miles on it. The transmission it runs okay,
except for the transmission. Now, the first shift it bangs
(26:26):
a little, and all the other shifts, all the other
shifts after that are perfect. However, if I start off
and uh, don't go up too high on the APMs
and drive it like I drove my grandfather's Desto, you know,
you let off on the gas transmission shifts like it works. Fine,
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Have you had the transmission fluid replaced in that.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
I haven't. I didn't want to do that because I
did that on one of my commercial vehicles and I
was told I should have left it alone because of
what particles and everything I d putting a new transmission
in that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
It it's you know, that's a it's your sort of
rolling the dice a little bit. And I think the
only what I might do is I might drain a
little bit of fluid out of that and see what's
going on it. If it's still pink, I mean, if
you pull the stick on it and it's still pink,
you know, I wouldn't worry about that. I would change
(27:22):
the fluid in it. That may help you.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Okay, I'll start. I'll start with the stick.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah, yeah, Okay, pull a stick and see what that
looks like. Smell it. If it smells burnt, you know,
then yeah. And if it's real brown, that that's not
so hot.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
And if you you may be able to feel particles
in it.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
So all right, I got another one on the car.
I'm hearing this thing about Oxcock here and cashield them
them plans any good for somebody like me right now?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
With that, I would not do it. And I don't
think they'd sell you a plan on that car. I
think it's too old. But but honestly, I mean, I
think they're they have limits, you know, on how old
a vehicle that they will that they will write a
policy for. But I would not do it on something
that old. You're much better off just you know, hey,
you know, if you need to replace a transmission and
(28:12):
transmission in that vehicle, it's going to be a lot
less than buying a new car, and it's going to
be probably pretty close to what a full extended warranty
would cost you. All Right, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Let's say answer the question, repeat the question, and I'll
tell you what I guess.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
What is the least the thing that people are least
interested in in the twenty five to thirty five thousand
dollars segment? So heads up display, leather upholstery, reconfigurable digital
day gauge, cluster, panoramic sunroof, interior and exterior welcome lighting,
selectable vehicle drive modes, branded Premium, Audo Audio, wireless, Apple
(28:54):
car Play, heated steering wheel, power, adjustable front passenger seat,
memory for a driver's seat position, and all wheel drive.
All right, I'm going to give you my reasoning.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Okay, my reasoning is, you wouldn't have asked the question
if the answer wasn't surprising, and the most surprising answer
would be all wheel drive.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Okay, that's my answer, all wheel drive, that's your answer. Okay,
So we had all wheel drive and then we had
heated wheel. We got two votes for heated wheel. What
it actually is is leather upholstery. I was feeling so so,
so check this up, all right, check this out. Eleven
percent said that they were interested in owning a vehicle
(29:31):
with leather or leather upholstery at that at that price range.
All wheel drive is only twenty four percent though, So
none of these things, none of these features big ticket.
There is a big ticket like that. All wheel drive
is four thousand dollars. Like, you know, the difference between
a vehicle it's got front wheel drive and one another
that's all wheel drive is above four grand. That's a
(29:53):
lot of money for something that you don't necessarily want, right,
So now, what what I can do is now look
at that and start to eliminate start yeah, and start
to look at what's going on in the market. So
like the Chevy Tracks, which I don't think anybody is
all that excited about the Chevy Tracks, but they sold
(30:15):
two hundred thousand of those last year. They Chevy didn't
sell anything more except for the full sized pickups. Then
they sold the Chevy Tracks last just because it's affordable. Exactly,
it's affordable. That's the entry level. So you've saved yourself.
You've got something that looks like an suv, but you
saved yourself a ton of money by not buying the
(30:36):
all wheel drive. So that's the truck. That's how to
beat the high prices. You get a vehicle that does
not have things that you don't really want right right,
And the problem now is that a lot of these
things are sort of built in. You don't get the
option to say I don't want you know, most people
are going to want air conditioning, most people are gonna
want power windows. But you know, you don't have the
(30:58):
option to say I don't want all wheel drive in
some cars, right and a lot of cars, like there's
a lot of you know, vehicles out there. You just
don't have the choice. You're gonna get it one way
or another. So the the what this exercise from Auto
Pacific helped me figure out was like, there's a market
for our car with nothing on it, with or with
(31:20):
not a lot on it. So that's the slate that
we had you had mentioned before. That's a little tiny
electric pickup. It's a regular cab pickup with a tiny
little bed. They're gonna come out in twenty twenty six.
They're really interesting to me because you buy the things
that you want. Do you you don't want to rate it?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I want to break and get drilled down on this. Yeah,
let's do you actually want one? So we'll find out
about this really cheap strippy as that is a stripper
father used to call it. And it's pretty interesting and
if if Craig wants one, well it can't be oh bed,
So we'll find out about the slate in a moment.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
On WBZ, You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ,
Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Hello, if you just joined us, It's Bradley J. For
Dan Ray on night Side, and our guest is Craig Fitzgerald,
and we're talking cars and how basically how to save
money or more accurately, get a good value in this
time when car prices are out of sight and one
(32:26):
of the tricks is to buy a vehicle that doesn't
have anything you don't want. And such a vehicle is
this new thing, I guess it's pretty new called a slate.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
It's actually it's actually there was a there's a business
incubator out in Framingham that provided a lot of seed
money for this. Their factory is in Michigan. Amazon's invested
a ton of money in it, and it's a small
regular cab really pick up almost the size of the
(33:03):
original Ford Ranger, if you can picture that. And the
deal with this thing. They're all electric. They were originally
supposed to be under twenty grand, but with the EV
tax credit going away, it's probably going to be about
twenty five grand. But the interesting thing about it is
that it doesn't come with anything you don't want, so
(33:24):
it has a number of features that everybody's gonna want.
Air conditioning, power, windows, power steering. That's it. If you
want a radio, you buy the radio they basically use.
They use almost like one of those JBL Bluetooth speakers,
and they have a little rack on the dash for it,
and you use your phone as your radio. I mean
(33:46):
everything that I want music and podcast and all of
that kind of stuff. I can listen to on my phone.
I can stream, you know, WBZ, I can do whatever
I want from my phone. So that's innovative to me.
And then you can, like you can configure it so
that it has an suv back to it or a
pickup truck back. It's got racks that you can put
(34:08):
on it. It's a really really cool little vehicle, and
it's the perfect size for me, Like I haven't I
haven't yet. So that's the thing is, I'm I'm, I'm
I'm awaiting the opportunity to drive one. I know several
people who work there now and I'm really really excited.
They are over the moon working for this company. So
(34:31):
that's a that's a plus.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
That would be a great trend if that was a
case a striving to get the price down. Yeah, and
just all the things that people want on the carp YEP.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
That's the idea is, you know, every kind of everywhere
else in the world, you the entry level vehicles are
tiny and they're not loaded up full of equipment, and here,
you know, we vehicles tend to be larger and they
tend to be loaded up even at the even at
the entry level.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Real quick ticket, bust a couple of myths and talk
to Michael and Adelborough. Michael will have a minute for you.
Let's bust two myths. Okay, myth number one. All wheel
drive is important.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Non important. Tires are important.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
It's you've been you've been conned into believing all wheel
drive is important, and you pay a lot.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
That's a big ticket item. Yeah, it's I mean, it's
a four thousand dollars difference.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Okay, don't get four whe don't get all we'll drive
slash forth.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
I'm not saying don't get it, but be aware of
what you're buying. Yeah, you don't need.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
It, probably don't need it, and that saves your money. Right,
What was the other thing? Oh, suv is safer than
a non suv.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Bigger is always going to be safer than smaller. It's
always going to be so you know, there is some uh,
there's some evidence that a larger suv is safer for you,
not necessarily safer for anybody else. Not safer for pedestrians
that you run into. Not safer for the small car
(36:04):
that you run into.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
So oh, all right, I thought you had told me
that it was not necessarily safer.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Every everything is crash tested, but within its class. I see, right,
So bigger is always going to be.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Safe, all right, Michael and Ailborough, we have Oh gee,
I don't know two minutes.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
What can Michael we do?
Speaker 6 (36:25):
Oh I am glad you have you back, Bradley. I'm
excited about the little pickup. I thought when Ford brought
the Ranger back it would be small again. I had
the Ford Courier, which was a miles so that thing
was incredible. Yeah, I had the I think it was
I can't remember the exact year, but I got to
(36:46):
tell you a light vehicle. But it flew through the snow.
So I don't want to get into that thing about
you know, you really have to have every vehicle for
the snow. Yeah, that's debatable.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
But.
Speaker 6 (36:59):
One cam put out a certain cow say at the
end of the subject. The first thing I said is
they're gonna They're gonna pull that off the road. I'm
talking about the Chevy Volt. Now, was that legendary and
one of the kind the Vault.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yes, I liked the Vault a lot. The Vault was
an interesting vehicle because it was it was you could
run it electric, but then also not you could You
also had a gas engine that was basically a generator
in it. So they were pretty cool vehicles. I like
those a lot. I wonder if maybe what you're talking
about is the EV one, which was GM's first electric
(37:39):
vehicle that they pulled out a production like. They wouldn't
even let anybody buy it. They were lease only and
they all got returned and then they all got destroyed,
which was kind of like that was kind of controversial
at the time. It's less so now, but that was
an interesting piece of history. Thanks Michael.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I have a question that's super quick answer because I
only have a minute. I think you like the new
Ford Bronco. I to me, it looks like Bronco too.
Why couldn't they have made a real Bronco. So there's
two Bronco second hands. There's there's the.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Bronco and then there's the Bronco Sport. Oh, I didn't know.
And the Bronco Sport looks more like a Bronco too.
The Bronco looks more like an original Bronco from sixty eight.
I kind of like it, although I like it less
than when I first saw it. What made it like
it less?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I guess I'm just it's almost like it's trying too hard.
I was disappointed. Yeah, it's I like it, and I
actually the crazy thing is I love the Broncos sport.
I think that it's so nice to drive people looks
like the bronc Yeah, it's great, it's really great. Greg
with Ceryl you are the best. We'll have you on,
thanks Man whenever I can. Coming up next, we have
(38:56):
Dave Wedge.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Who is a Boston area writer and he has a
new book, well a book on Marvin Hagler. So we're
going to talk to Dave, find out about him, find
out about marvelous Marvin Hagler.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Looking forward to that here
Speaker 2 (39:11):
On WBC News Radio ten thirty and the number is
six one, seven, two, five four, ten thirty
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