September 21, 2023 • 31 mins
Step into the driver's seat with us and our special guest, Faisal Hassan, the general manager of data at Carfax. In an enlightening discussion, Faisal shares vital insights on how to level up your used car research. He emphasizes the significance of narrowing down your car choices, studying reviews, and delving into the key data when researching a used car.
But there's more under the hood! Faisal enlightens us on the full power of a Carfax report when buying used cars. He talks about the ubiquity of Carfax reports at dealerships and their versatility through the Carfax app. He further gears us into the importance of car servicing, revealing how Carfax partners with thousands of service and repair facilities across the U.S and Canada to provide verified reviews when buying a used car with a damage event.
For a change of scenery, we then hit the road and discuss the thrill of car shows and cruises. We also take the Subaru Crosstrek Premium for a spin, reviewing its power levels, engine size, towing capacity, fuel efficiency, and interior features.
So buckle up and join our car talk family every Saturday morning as we explore the world of cars from the driver's seat to the engine and everything in between.
Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to another In Wheel Time Podcast, a 30 minute
mini version of the In WheelTime car show that airs live
every Saturday morning 8 to 11am.
Central Podcast Channel Fromthe world famous sugar shack in
Texas, usa.
Oh yeah, it's the In Wheel Timecar talk show and coming up.
(00:24):
We're going to speak to CarFacts about getting the most out
of available data.
We'll have the upcoming eventscalendar.
Mars reviews the new SubaruCrosstrak.
At the bottom of the hour wetalk about the upcoming Texas
Mile event.
Plus, you'll hear the storiesmaking automotive news headlines
today.
We've got Hemmings sold carsround up.
(00:47):
It's always fun and a pleasantSaturday to you.
Howdy Along with Mike out ofthis world of Mars King Conrad
DeLong.
We always need more Jeff Zieken, he's a time down.
Armstrong gargling his waythrough the intro.
There you go here on the InWheel Time car talk show.
Yes, we have an hour to go.
(01:08):
You know this is a three hourshow.
Theoretically, that'stheoretical.
Theoretically.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Theoretically Mars is theoretically.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You know, if I were him, I think I'd come over here
and slap.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So so, so I'm just proud he got the wording right.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
The pronunciation with the emphasis on the right,
so libel.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, so libel, but we didn't get the last guest's
name correct, I guess.
Well, you asked Gee Gee.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
And I would have said Alex, alex is right.
Yeah, we got that part of itright.
What a great interview.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, it was a good stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Fascinating stuff, isn't it?
Well, we're going to haveanother fascinating interview
right now.
His name is Faisal Hassan andhe's the general manager of data
at Carfax.
Good morning, sir.
How are you?
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Doing well.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Great to be on again.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, it's good to have you with us again.
So here is the subject at handAll right, how consumers, car
buyers, can do better used carresearch.
Okay, all right, I don't havean answer to that, but I think
that you probably do.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Absolutely.
I mean, look, today, with somany resources available to
consumers, we know that they'llgo to the internet, they'll go
to Google, they'll do a searchand there are just so many
resources out there and first ofall, the consumer has to decide
what kind of car they want.
They want an SUV, they want asedan, they want a pickup truck.
(02:42):
And then they want to go andthey want to look at the reviews
on those cars.
Which one do they actually want?
What year, make, model are theylooking for?
If they're looking to buy a usedcar, obviously I'm with Carfax
and I highly recommend they goto Carfaxcom.
We have literally millions ofused cars that dealers from all
(03:02):
over the country thousands ofdealers have posted the car.
You get the free vehiclehistory report there and
literally millions of them thatyou can find.
But you need to narrow downwhat you want to look for.
You can use our site.
There are great websites likeconsumer reports that you can
also use to look at reliabilityand ratings and then you can
(03:25):
also use Carfax.
Once you pick a car and youfind it on a dealer site, you
can actually look at the ratingsand reliability of working with
that particular dealer.
We collect that informationspecifically from consumers who
have been to that dealer.
But today you go to theinternet.
There's just endless resources.
I highly recommend Carfaxplaces like consumer reports as
(03:49):
a starting point.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, what am I looking for specifically?
Let's just take, for instance,a car that's an SUV that's four
years old.
Let's just pick a suburbanChevy suburban it's four years
old, it's got 60,000 miles on it.
Well, okay, so here's the data,but what part of?
(04:14):
Because there's lots of datawhat part of the data am I
looking for?
What do you?
Speaker 5 (04:19):
think or should be looking for, or should be
looking for.
Yeah, I mean, if I'm buying afour-year-old car that's got
60,000 miles on it, what's thefirst thing that tells me?
It tells me car has been drivenabout 15,000 miles a year,
which is about average usuallyaround 12,000, 12 to 15,000 is
average.
I'm going to look for how manyowners has it had.
It's four years old.
(04:39):
Am I buying it as the secondowner or has it had three
previous owners?
I'm going to look for what wasits previous use.
Was it a taxicab in itsprevious life?
Was it a rental car?
Did it come off a two-yearlease or and then go to another
two-year lease?
So I'm going to look for thosekinds of things.
But the number one thing we knowconsumers look for dealers,
(05:03):
anyone is was the car in anaccident?
They have a damage event in itspast during those four years,
and that is really key and usinga car fax report, getting a
mechanics inspection, is reallycrucial for that.
Then you want to know has thecar been well maintained?
Has it had all of the keyservice at events that it was
(05:24):
supposed to have during thattime?
And if you do those things witha mechanics inspection and a
test drive, you should be inpretty good shape with that
four-year-old suburban.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
If you're looking at four or five different ones at
different dealers.
Now you have that ability tocompare all of them against each
other, for which one is meetsall of those criteria the best.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And if you're comparing themside by side and you're looking
at their vehicle history reportsside by side, you're also going
to be able to see the vehiclehistory adjusted value on there,
which is the specific valuethat car fax places on that
specific car Not all cars andnot all of those four-year-old
(06:08):
suburban, but that specificsuburban based on its history.
And from there you've got allof the information you need.
But you're exactly right youwant to compare cars at
different dealers and then putyourself in a good position to
negotiate and try to understandwhy different dealers are
pricing them differently.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
How far back?
We're talking about afour-year-old car now.
How far back does your data?
How far back can I look?
Speaker 5 (06:36):
1981, when the begin, when the Vin became standard.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Oh my God, I don't know of a 1981 car I'd want to
buy.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
No, no.
But let's say, let's say, your,your, your Corvette 2001, 2002,
34, 45 but a 1981.
Corvette Stop button.
There's nothing there.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
No, but it's a, it's a great quite.
We actually see cars all thetime with, you know, model year
94, model year 95.
People are running vehiclehistory reports on them.
You guys probably know this.
The average age of the car onthe road today, the vehicles and
operations about 12 years, yep,and it's growing.
Yeah, and you know, if we getthis strike that takes place and
you have less new cars flowingin, people are going to keep
(07:19):
their cars longer and and we'reseeing that quite a bit now
especially used car prices.
We put out a press release acouple of weeks ago because we
saw used car prices trend downabout $600 on average per car.
Now that might change if astrike takes place and lasts say
three, four months.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, but, by the same token, the the truck I'm
driving is a 2015.
I like driving that truck.
It drives good, it doeseverything.
What it's missing, though, isthe new technology, and the cost
to upgrade it to from from anumber three to a number five
system, for example is just it'sa bunch of money, but the truck
(08:01):
is holding its value because ofthe used car market and stuff.
So I'm nine years into it and Igot no, I'm not looking at a
new one, okay.
Okay, I'm just saying thatthere's a lot of reasons to keep
it, but, and if I could figureout a decent way to upgrade the
technology as far as the screenand interface to it, I wouldn't
(08:22):
even think about it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I want to shift gears a little bit and ask you there
are a lot of cars on the marketthat are for sale, that are have
been wrecked in the past.
And when I say that, that's ageneral statement, because a
wreck can mean it wiped off theentire front end, that it's been
rebuilt or it could have had afender bender where they crushed
(08:46):
the right front fender.
He got it repainted, nostructural damage to the car.
Would you buy a used car basedon that and people do and what
is the percentage of that?
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Believe it or not, about 50% of all the cars on the
road have had some sort ofdamage events and we see
regularly in our data that about30 to 40% of the cars that
people run vehicle historyreports on have had some sort of
damage event.
And the great thing is whatCarfax is able to do.
We're able to put about aseverity and a point of impact
(09:22):
on about 95% of all of thosedamage.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's sick yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Yeah, it's right on our report.
Now I will buy a used car witha damage event.
I will be totally honest withyou.
My very first used car ever, myvery first car ever, was a 1980
Honda Prelude that had a hugedent in the side and I bought it
anyway because it ran great andthe guy told me it had been in
an accident and he told me whathappened and he gave me a great
(09:49):
deal on it and I had a mechanic.
There was no Carfax,unfortunately at the time,
actually no 17-digit VIN either,and I drove that car for 10
years all through college andgraduate school until I had my
first kid.
So you can buy a good used carthat's had a damage event.
Now if it's been a total that'sgot a salvage brand on it, I
(10:14):
would steer away from those cars.
And today, with all of theflooding that's taking place,
you're getting a lot of floodvehicles that are coming back in
the market from Vermont andCalifornia and Florida.
So being really careful isimportant.
But there are good used carsthat have had damage sustained
and have been repaired the rightway Can you walk me through the
(10:34):
process of getting a car onCarfax.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And the reason why I asked this is we just recently
purchased a car and you're outon the lot.
You're looking where's theCarfax report?
Oh, that's just came in.
It's going to be on next week.
What about that one?
Oh, that one.
We didn't have a Carfax report,so is it garbage in, garbage
out at the dealer?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
So look, we've got 31,000 dealers who subscribe to
our service.
It's rare that you could go toa dealer and not find a dealer
who's providing a car fax report.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I can take you to four today.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
And let them call me.
I'll get them on the program.
The reality is today, mostpeople who start their car
search it's not like the olddays where, when I bought my
first car, I'd go look in thepaper, I'd drive out the
dealer's lots and try to figureout what they had.
People are going to theinternet today, right, they're
going to the dealer's website,they're going to Carfaxcom and
(11:30):
they're seeing the cars and thevehicle history report is right
there.
It's there because the dealerpurchased it and asked us to put
it there and you'll see iteverywhere.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
These dealers are on the Carfax.
They have the signage, they'vegot the big banners, they've got
all that.
They're signed up.
They just don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It was a new car, right Well, no, no.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
We searched for pre-owned first.
There's not even Moroni's onsome of the new ones.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
We work with these dealers and the dealers pay for
Carfax the vast majority ofdealers.
One of the first things they'regoing to do, they're going to
say, hey, I looked at this car,I inspected it, I ran the Carfax
, it's got all its one owner,it's got all its service and
repair history and, yeah, it hada minor damage event.
(12:19):
It was a fender bender.
Carfax shows you exactly righthere, because it helps them sell
the car, and so if a dealer isbuying Carfax reports and not
showing them, they're probablydoing themselves a disservice.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, let's talk.
Let's talk just a moment aboutall of the service on a vehicle.
I've got a car that's 22 yearsold now and, yes, I get it
serviced.
I don't drive it very much atall, but at least once a year I
take it in for its maybe 3,000mile oil change and inspection
(12:54):
and that sort of stuff.
How does Carfax know that I'vetaken it to a car maintenance
facility and had the oil changed?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
So we work with about 76,000 service and repair
facilities across the UnitedStates and even in Canada, and
we actually go and work with theprincipal, the owner of the
facility, with the dealer, andwhat we do is we tell them look,
you've got this piece of metalthat's coming in and you're
(13:26):
doing work on it and you'remaking it better.
You're putting a newtransmission in it, you're
changing the oil, you're puttingnew brakes in it, you're
updating the tires.
Put that on the Carfax report.
Let's show that there's valuethat you're bringing to this car
.
And so we work with all ofthese entities.
We have a team and I startedthe program with a couple of
other people back in 2002 andworking with dealers and
(13:49):
aftermarket facilities.
And today you go, a car goes,gets its oil changed, maybe gets
new tires, gets the tiresrotated.
That night the aftermarket shopwill hit a button and send the
data to Carfax.
We'll put it on our report andwe'll brand them on the report
and then we'll turn around andwe'll send you a note and say,
(14:12):
hey, how was your experience?
And you'll rate and review thatparticular shop, whether it's a
dealer or an aftermarket, andwe've got right there, verified
reviews, so it ends up not justhelping the shop but it helps
the owner of the car and whenthey go to sell their car it's
got that fast service and repairhistory showing the car's been
well maintained.
(14:33):
Carfax's history-based valuejust goes through the roof for
that car.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
How do I know that the place that I'm taking my car
for the oil change is doingthat?
Speaker 5 (14:42):
That's a great question.
One of the things you can do isdownload the Carfax Carfax
Carfax app is in all of the appstores.
It's completely free.
You put in your VIN and we willtrack everything for you.
But when you're in there,you're able to put in your zip
code and we'll show you all theshops in your zip code that
participate, whether it's dealeror aftermarket, and you can
(15:05):
choose where you go and whatservice that you want.
You can price the service forparts and labor, all of those
things.
You can make an appointment andit's all completely free, and
that's usually the easiest wayto do that.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And that's how my repair facility or maintenance
facility actually sends the dataon my car too.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Thank, you, that's correct.
They're just sending the VIN.
They, you know, hey, this VINgot an oil change, you know, got
a tire rotation, you know any?
Whatever happened to thatparticular piece of metal?
They'll share that and thenwe'll make it available right
back to.
If the owner has signed up forcar care.
It'll show up, usually within afew hours, and they can keep
(15:50):
track of their service andrepair history.
We'll let you know when yourcar needs to be re -registered,
we'll let you know if you havean open recall, just about
anything you need to know aboutthat car.
And this is all free.
We provide this completely forfree.
We have about 35 millionconsumers who have downloaded
the app and are using it everysingle day, put in their VIN and
(16:11):
we help them track the historyof their car.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So I can go on this app and log in my VIN number.
Will I be able to see anyinformation about my car?
That's already in there.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Absolutely, absolutely Any service and
repair history, if you have anopen recall if your car needs to
be re-registered any of thoseand it's updated automatically.
As soon as new informationcomes in, it's updated.
And the really cool thing isyour history based value sits
there and you go get an oilchange.
You know scheduled maintenance.
(16:43):
You'll see it move up a littlebit.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
And that's pretty cool.
And if you're dealing with adealership or a used car
operator that advertises that hehas Carfax, and you walk in and
you say well, I don't have iton that one yet.
How long does it take him toproduce that document?
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Well, if it's a Carfax Advantage dealer, the
reports are generatedautomatically, so it's usually
available.
Independent dealers some ofthem do what we call a paper VIN
, so they may not be runningCarfax on every single car on
their lot, they may be runningit on specific cars or they may
only be running it when they'rebuying a car wholesale.
(17:25):
But our advantage dealers,which is the ones who, when you
walk in, they've got Carfaxeverywhere because they want you
to know that they're beingtransparent, that they want the
process to go well, but my gutis based on your question that
that might be one of thosedealers who's only running
Carfax on very specific cars.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well, that brings to my point, because the one I'm
talking about, they had all that.
They had signage, they had iton the door, they had a puppet
or something of that nature andno, they were clueless.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Absolutely clueless.
But it only takes the minutesto get the report.
I mean I've done the paper VINand I mean it doesn't take very
long to produce the report.
So I don't know why anybodywould say oh, we can't get it.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Well, somebody's dropped the ball somewhere.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
There's maybe a newbie that doesn't do it
Doesn't want to admit it.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
If you go to a shop, if you go to a dealership, used
or new, and they don't want toshow you the Carfax report you
probably might want to runExactly, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Put on those new run and shoes you got.
Faisal, it's great to talk toyou, my friend.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
As always, we appreciate it.
Great information, carfaxcom.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Who doesn't know?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
about Carfax.
Thank you again.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Absolutely Take care ofyourselves guys, you too.
You bet Nice.
I know All right Time now forthe events calendar.
I know of an event that we'vegot coming up, two of them
actually.
We've got Woody's WaterfrontCar Show down in San Leon that's
(19:05):
coming up, and then we alsohave AutoRama.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Thanksgiving weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Those are two that I steal all your thunder.
I admit mean to.
No, you're okay, you're okay.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
He's true, he's got them on the cruise in Northside
Mustang Club.
They're on their cruise.
A few of them had chimed inearlier saying they were
listening to us while they wereon their cruise.
Oh, that's cool.
Hello, northside Mustang Club,enjoy yourselves as well.
Cruise in Sillsby 2023,september 29th through the 30th,
(19:39):
friday and Saturday night atthe Kirby Memorial Stadium in
Sillsby, texas, mars.
You need to be there becauseSeptember 30th you can start off
in Niederland Avenue cruise andcruise from Niederland to Main
Street and go to Sillsby.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Now I'm going to cruise to San Leon, to Woody's,
okay.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Well, we'll see you at Woody's.
It's only three blocks away.
And yeah, join us for Woody'sfor his fifth ever show put on
by Michael Woody at the what'sthe restaurant I don't know
Topwater Grill.
Topwater Grill in San Leonright out there on the on the
water Salads are awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
If you can get one, get one.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Also October 14th is the all British car show at the
Butler House off of Gosling Road.
October 20th is the 38th annualWolf Creek car and truck and
bike show in Cold Spring.
The Clear Lake car show withthe Elks Lodge and Kima is on
September 23rd and SaturdayOctober 28th is the Oak Turbo
(20:45):
Fest at Carrom Springs in Wacoand then the 17th annual Hot
Rods Heroes and Hot RodsVeterans Day show in downtown
Bastrop.
We had Bill Zleg on last weektalking about that and you know
that's always a good show.
I think they have a limit of400 cars.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I have to tell you that the only time that I've
ever been to downtown Bastropwas last year for the Corvette
Extravaganza, and it's a cutelittle town, but I'm always on
my way to Austin.
You're on the interstate, youdrive by on the highway.
Yeah, I've never gone todowntown Bastrop.
(21:26):
I was at Bastrop, I justthought it was the highway.
Junk shops along the way, alongwith some gasoline stations.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
No, it's a real honest to God town.
It's like three blocks north ofthe Water Burger.
That's right.
When you're driving by on thehighway and you see the Water
Burger, you just miss the exit.
It's about three blocks shortfrom there.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
There you go, cute little town.
Okay, time now for this hour'scar review.
I have a chance to drive theSubaru Crosstrek, which I'll
steal.
Your thunder is a gussied upimpressive, oh did you know that
Mars?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, I didn't.
Well, it is.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
It's, it's, it's a they've turned.
Now you do.
They turn the impressive in me,right there SUV.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
He called them Gussie .
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Gussie, go ahead that name, gussie.
So we're talking about the 2024Subaru Cross Trek premium.
This is the third generation ofthe Cross Trek and it's
available in five trim levels.
You've got a base, a premium,and then you get to the sport.
The limited and new this yearis the will, wildness,
wilderness.
I can't even read the wildest,I can't even ride and read my
(22:36):
own riding here.
It's the wildness, yeah, thewildness, so, anyway.
So this is a compact crossoverSUV and a lot of things are
carried over.
It's kind of a refresh thisyear and you got front.
You're going to find thatthere's a frameless hexagonal
grill with some compactheadlights.
You're going to find steeringhexagonal steering, responsive.
(22:57):
LED headlights with LED foglights, got a heated windshield,
heated side view mirrors on it,raised roof rails, got a
sunroof and it rolls on some 17inch alloy wheels.
Now this is an all wheel drivevehicle and so a lot of this is
set up for this.
The reason, one of the reasonsthis vehicle is so popular
because of all the all weatherthat it can handle in the all
(23:19):
wheel drive mode with the thingsthat it's got Now ours by being
the premium.
It wasn't the base model, soit's up one notch.
So we had the cloth interiorseating level set covers and it
was the heated front seats.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
There was a problem down there.
Yeah, there's a problem overhere.
Did you just eat some peanutbutter?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
So we had a really nice 11.6 inch touchscreen
infotainment system that was inthis car.
It was kind of it actuallyseemed really big for the
vehicle that we were in andthat's where you're going to
find your Subaru Starlink system.
It's going to be theinfotainment system, the nav,
all the things that they've gotin it which is new for this year
.
You're going to find your AppleCarPlay, android Auto.
There Now under the hood, thisis a boxer engine, so it's a
(24:02):
flat type engine.
We had the 2.0 liter.
Now if you step up into theupper trim levels it is a 2.5
liter.
So we had the smaller engine152 horsepower, 145 pound torque
, backed by a CVT.
Now this particular vehicle israted to tow 1500 pounds.
You get the bigger engine inthe upper trim levels.
(24:25):
It'll tow a little bit more.
Epa says you should be lookingfor about 27 in the city, 34 on
the highway combined for 29.
Now I drove this vehicle 342miles and I got 27.5 miles per
gallon over the course of thatweek.
Pretty good for your feds.
I thought it was a real goodand it's a smaller engine, but I
thought it handled really wellas far as the power levels on it
(24:47):
.
This is a kind of a firm ride.
It's all wheel drive standard.
It's not a race car, but it's avery confident, inspiring
driving experience.
You drive it, you know it's notgoing to be exciting, but you
know you feel good about it whenyou're driving it.
It's going to go where you wantit to go and how you want it to
go there.
Part of that is it's got to mea taller roof line, so it seems
(25:11):
like you've got a little moreheadroom on the inside of it,
particularly in the driver'sposition.
So the driver's view, the spanof view in it, I really like
that a lot better.
Now, the base trim price is$27,440.
The base model, which we wereone up off of that, is $26,290.
Did not have a Monroni withthis one, so I don't have an
exact price for this particularvehicle I was driving.
(25:33):
If you're looking for somethingto compare it to, though,
you're going to look overpossibly at the Ford Broncos 4th
that Don was talking aboutearlier.
$31,230 is what I had down onit.
The Jeep Compass is another onein that category for $28,000,
and the newer Mazda CX-30 is$22,950.
But again, that compactcrossover SUV segment is a
(25:56):
pretty popular segment.
There's a lot of competition inthere.
So there's a lot of variance inthe horsepower that you can get
as well as the features you canget in the car.
But again, if you're lookingfor that all-wheel drive vehicle
that gives you that confidence,inspiring driving experience
the Subaru Crosstrek is one ofthem.
You can look at Hexagonalgrille.
(26:17):
The hexagonal grille.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
The hexagonal grille.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I'm going to have to improve my riding.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
I may have to start typing it, or at least your
vocabulary.
And don't be eating peanutbutter just before you read that
you going to send that toSubaru.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I may have to edit a little bit, just a little Clean
it up a little bit.
I generally don't edit it verymuch.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Very much.
I think is the key word.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Exactly that's what we say during it.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
That's right how we can screw up his car review.
We don't do it intentionally,it just that there are things.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
It just comes too easy.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, it does come easy and I appreciate all the
help I know you do.
We wouldn't all be here if itweren't for things like that.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
It wasn't funny.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It was Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Well, we got 30 minutes left.
I'm ready to go now, but Iguess we'll stick around, suze
is out, it's a bad day to quitdrinking, is she?
Speaker 3 (27:20):
out Did.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I let her out.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
No, she's out, oh, she's knocked out.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Suze is snooze.
Yeah, she's over there.
Notice that she's found a niceplace underneath the camera that
you're looking at, on the coldconcrete.
On the cold concrete becauseit's cool.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It's kind of like you Don.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
She walked around here earlier and then just
headed that way.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, you want to make sure everybody was in their
place yeah.
Make sure you still are.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
All right?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Hey, not that you'd ever do this, but I just thought
I'd let you know that thisprogram is available 24 seven
through iHeartRadio.
Just search in wheel time cartalk.
We also video stream onFacebook, youtube, twitch and in
wheel timecom, and 30 minutepodcasts are at your fingertips
on over a dozen of the mostpopular podcast outlets, and I
(28:06):
know that that's the one thatyou pick.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
And available for free in the App Store.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
The In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show continues right after
this quick break.
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The award-winning in-wheel timecar talk show is available on
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episodes.
We realize our three-hour liveshow can be difficult to catch
(30:22):
in its entirety, so now you canlisten every day to a convenient
, fresh 30-minute episode.
Check us out on Apple Podcasts,spotify, google Podcasts,
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In-wheel time is the mostinformative automotive guest
interviews and new car reviews,along with popular features,
including Conrad's car clinicand this week in Auto History,
along with automotive newsheadlines.
(30:43):
Our live broadcast airs everySaturday, 8 to 11, central on
InWheelTimecom, the iHeart appand on YouTube.
Be sure to say hello when we'rebroadcasting from the tailpipes
and tacos cruise in Auto Ramand the Houston Auto Show, among
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Now it's easier than ever tohear about all things automotive
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of the ever-growing InWheelTimecar talk family.
Don't forget those 30-minutepodcast episodes on your
favorite podcast channel.
That's it for this podcastepisode of the InWheelTime car
show.
I'm Don Armstrong, inviting youto join us for our live show
every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central on Facebook, youtube,
twitch and our InWheelTimecomwebsite.
(31:26):
Podcasts are available on ApplePodcasts, spotify, stitcher,
iheart Podcast, podcast addict.
Tune in Pandora.
Welcome to another In Wheel Time Podcast, a 30 minute
mini version of the In WheelTime car show that airs live
every Saturday morning 8 to 11am.
Central Podcast Channel Fromthe world famous sugar shack in
Texas, usa.
Oh yeah, it's the In Wheel Timecar talk show and coming up.
(00:24):
We're going to speak to CarFacts about getting the most out
of available data.
We'll have the upcoming eventscalendar.
Mars reviews the new SubaruCrosstrak.
At the bottom of the hour wetalk about the upcoming Texas
Mile event.
Plus, you'll hear the storiesmaking automotive news headlines
today.
We've got Hemmings sold carsround up.
(00:47):
It's always fun and a pleasantSaturday to you.
Howdy Along with Mike out ofthis world of Mars King Conrad
DeLong.
We always need more Jeff Zieken, he's a time down.
Armstrong gargling his waythrough the intro.
There you go here on the InWheel Time car talk show.
Yes, we have an hour to go.
(01:08):
You know this is a three hourshow.
Theoretically, that'stheoretical.
Theoretically.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Theoretically Mars is theoretically.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You know, if I were him, I think I'd come over here
and slap.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So so, so I'm just proud he got the wording right.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
The pronunciation with the emphasis on the right,
so libel.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, so libel, but we didn't get the last guest's
name correct, I guess.
Well, you asked Gee Gee.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
And I would have said Alex, alex is right.
Yeah, we got that part of itright.
What a great interview.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, it was a good stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Fascinating stuff, isn't it?
Well, we're going to haveanother fascinating interview
right now.
His name is Faisal Hassan andhe's the general manager of data
at Carfax.
Good morning, sir.
How are you?
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Doing well.
Good morning, gentlemen.
Great to be on again.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, it's good to have you with us again.
So here is the subject at handAll right, how consumers, car
buyers, can do better used carresearch.
Okay, all right, I don't havean answer to that, but I think
that you probably do.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Absolutely.
I mean, look, today, with somany resources available to
consumers, we know that they'llgo to the internet, they'll go
to Google, they'll do a searchand there are just so many
resources out there and first ofall, the consumer has to decide
what kind of car they want.
They want an SUV, they want asedan, they want a pickup truck.
(02:42):
And then they want to go andthey want to look at the reviews
on those cars.
Which one do they actually want?
What year, make, model are theylooking for?
If they're looking to buy a usedcar, obviously I'm with Carfax
and I highly recommend they goto Carfaxcom.
We have literally millions ofused cars that dealers from all
(03:02):
over the country thousands ofdealers have posted the car.
You get the free vehiclehistory report there and
literally millions of them thatyou can find.
But you need to narrow downwhat you want to look for.
You can use our site.
There are great websites likeconsumer reports that you can
also use to look at reliabilityand ratings and then you can
(03:25):
also use Carfax.
Once you pick a car and youfind it on a dealer site, you
can actually look at the ratingsand reliability of working with
that particular dealer.
We collect that informationspecifically from consumers who
have been to that dealer.
But today you go to theinternet.
There's just endless resources.
I highly recommend Carfaxplaces like consumer reports as
(03:49):
a starting point.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, what am I looking for specifically?
Let's just take, for instance,a car that's an SUV that's four
years old.
Let's just pick a suburbanChevy suburban it's four years
old, it's got 60,000 miles on it.
Well, okay, so here's the data,but what part of?
(04:14):
Because there's lots of datawhat part of the data am I
looking for?
What do you?
Speaker 5 (04:19):
think or should be looking for, or should be
looking for.
Yeah, I mean, if I'm buying afour-year-old car that's got
60,000 miles on it, what's thefirst thing that tells me?
It tells me car has been drivenabout 15,000 miles a year,
which is about average usuallyaround 12,000, 12 to 15,000 is
average.
I'm going to look for how manyowners has it had.
It's four years old.
(04:39):
Am I buying it as the secondowner or has it had three
previous owners?
I'm going to look for what wasits previous use.
Was it a taxicab in itsprevious life?
Was it a rental car?
Did it come off a two-yearlease or and then go to another
two-year lease?
So I'm going to look for thosekinds of things.
But the number one thing we knowconsumers look for dealers,
(05:03):
anyone is was the car in anaccident?
They have a damage event in itspast during those four years,
and that is really key and usinga car fax report, getting a
mechanics inspection, is reallycrucial for that.
Then you want to know has thecar been well maintained?
Has it had all of the keyservice at events that it was
(05:24):
supposed to have during thattime?
And if you do those things witha mechanics inspection and a
test drive, you should be inpretty good shape with that
four-year-old suburban.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
If you're looking at four or five different ones at
different dealers.
Now you have that ability tocompare all of them against each
other, for which one is meetsall of those criteria the best.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And if you're comparing themside by side and you're looking
at their vehicle history reportsside by side, you're also going
to be able to see the vehiclehistory adjusted value on there,
which is the specific valuethat car fax places on that
specific car Not all cars andnot all of those four-year-old
(06:08):
suburban, but that specificsuburban based on its history.
And from there you've got allof the information you need.
But you're exactly right youwant to compare cars at
different dealers and then putyourself in a good position to
negotiate and try to understandwhy different dealers are
pricing them differently.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
How far back?
We're talking about afour-year-old car now.
How far back does your data?
How far back can I look?
Speaker 5 (06:36):
1981, when the begin, when the Vin became standard.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Oh my God, I don't know of a 1981 car I'd want to
buy.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
No, no.
But let's say, let's say, your,your, your Corvette 2001, 2002,
34, 45 but a 1981.
Corvette Stop button.
There's nothing there.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
No, but it's a, it's a great quite.
We actually see cars all thetime with, you know, model year
94, model year 95.
People are running vehiclehistory reports on them.
You guys probably know this.
The average age of the car onthe road today, the vehicles and
operations about 12 years, yep,and it's growing.
Yeah, and you know, if we getthis strike that takes place and
you have less new cars flowingin, people are going to keep
(07:19):
their cars longer and and we'reseeing that quite a bit now
especially used car prices.
We put out a press release acouple of weeks ago because we
saw used car prices trend downabout $600 on average per car.
Now that might change if astrike takes place and lasts say
three, four months.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Well, but, by the same token, the the truck I'm
driving is a 2015.
I like driving that truck.
It drives good, it doeseverything.
What it's missing, though, isthe new technology, and the cost
to upgrade it to from from anumber three to a number five
system, for example is just it'sa bunch of money, but the truck
(08:01):
is holding its value because ofthe used car market and stuff.
So I'm nine years into it and Igot no, I'm not looking at a
new one, okay.
Okay, I'm just saying thatthere's a lot of reasons to keep
it, but, and if I could figureout a decent way to upgrade the
technology as far as the screenand interface to it, I wouldn't
(08:22):
even think about it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I want to shift gears a little bit and ask you there
are a lot of cars on the marketthat are for sale, that are have
been wrecked in the past.
And when I say that, that's ageneral statement, because a
wreck can mean it wiped off theentire front end, that it's been
rebuilt or it could have had afender bender where they crushed
(08:46):
the right front fender.
He got it repainted, nostructural damage to the car.
Would you buy a used car basedon that and people do and what
is the percentage of that?
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Believe it or not, about 50% of all the cars on the
road have had some sort ofdamage events and we see
regularly in our data that about30 to 40% of the cars that
people run vehicle historyreports on have had some sort of
damage event.
And the great thing is whatCarfax is able to do.
We're able to put about aseverity and a point of impact
(09:22):
on about 95% of all of thosedamage.
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's sick yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Yeah, it's right on our report.
Now I will buy a used car witha damage event.
I will be totally honest withyou.
My very first used car ever, myvery first car ever, was a 1980
Honda Prelude that had a hugedent in the side and I bought it
anyway because it ran great andthe guy told me it had been in
an accident and he told me whathappened and he gave me a great
(09:49):
deal on it and I had a mechanic.
There was no Carfax,unfortunately at the time,
actually no 17-digit VIN either,and I drove that car for 10
years all through college andgraduate school until I had my
first kid.
So you can buy a good used carthat's had a damage event.
Now if it's been a total that'sgot a salvage brand on it, I
(10:14):
would steer away from those cars.
And today, with all of theflooding that's taking place,
you're getting a lot of floodvehicles that are coming back in
the market from Vermont andCalifornia and Florida.
So being really careful isimportant.
But there are good used carsthat have had damage sustained
and have been repaired the rightway Can you walk me through the
(10:34):
process of getting a car onCarfax.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And the reason why I asked this is we just recently
purchased a car and you're outon the lot.
You're looking where's theCarfax report?
Oh, that's just came in.
It's going to be on next week.
What about that one?
Oh, that one.
We didn't have a Carfax report,so is it garbage in, garbage
out at the dealer?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
So look, we've got 31,000 dealers who subscribe to
our service.
It's rare that you could go toa dealer and not find a dealer
who's providing a car fax report.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I can take you to four today.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
And let them call me.
I'll get them on the program.
The reality is today, mostpeople who start their car
search it's not like the olddays where, when I bought my
first car, I'd go look in thepaper, I'd drive out the
dealer's lots and try to figureout what they had.
People are going to theinternet today, right, they're
going to the dealer's website,they're going to Carfaxcom and
(11:30):
they're seeing the cars and thevehicle history report is right
there.
It's there because the dealerpurchased it and asked us to put
it there and you'll see iteverywhere.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
These dealers are on the Carfax.
They have the signage, they'vegot the big banners, they've got
all that.
They're signed up.
They just don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It was a new car, right Well, no, no.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
We searched for pre-owned first.
There's not even Moroni's onsome of the new ones.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
We work with these dealers and the dealers pay for
Carfax the vast majority ofdealers.
One of the first things they'regoing to do, they're going to
say, hey, I looked at this car,I inspected it, I ran the Carfax
, it's got all its one owner,it's got all its service and
repair history and, yeah, it hada minor damage event.
(12:19):
It was a fender bender.
Carfax shows you exactly righthere, because it helps them sell
the car, and so if a dealer isbuying Carfax reports and not
showing them, they're probablydoing themselves a disservice.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, let's talk.
Let's talk just a moment aboutall of the service on a vehicle.
I've got a car that's 22 yearsold now and, yes, I get it
serviced.
I don't drive it very much atall, but at least once a year I
take it in for its maybe 3,000mile oil change and inspection
(12:54):
and that sort of stuff.
How does Carfax know that I'vetaken it to a car maintenance
facility and had the oil changed?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
So we work with about 76,000 service and repair
facilities across the UnitedStates and even in Canada, and
we actually go and work with theprincipal, the owner of the
facility, with the dealer, andwhat we do is we tell them look,
you've got this piece of metalthat's coming in and you're
(13:26):
doing work on it and you'remaking it better.
You're putting a newtransmission in it, you're
changing the oil, you're puttingnew brakes in it, you're
updating the tires.
Put that on the Carfax report.
Let's show that there's valuethat you're bringing to this car
.
And so we work with all ofthese entities.
We have a team and I startedthe program with a couple of
other people back in 2002 andworking with dealers and
(13:49):
aftermarket facilities.
And today you go, a car goes,gets its oil changed, maybe gets
new tires, gets the tiresrotated.
That night the aftermarket shopwill hit a button and send the
data to Carfax.
We'll put it on our report andwe'll brand them on the report
and then we'll turn around andwe'll send you a note and say,
(14:12):
hey, how was your experience?
And you'll rate and review thatparticular shop, whether it's a
dealer or an aftermarket, andwe've got right there, verified
reviews, so it ends up not justhelping the shop but it helps
the owner of the car and whenthey go to sell their car it's
got that fast service and repairhistory showing the car's been
well maintained.
(14:33):
Carfax's history-based valuejust goes through the roof for
that car.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
How do I know that the place that I'm taking my car
for the oil change is doingthat?
Speaker 5 (14:42):
That's a great question.
One of the things you can do isdownload the Carfax Carfax
Carfax app is in all of the appstores.
It's completely free.
You put in your VIN and we willtrack everything for you.
But when you're in there,you're able to put in your zip
code and we'll show you all theshops in your zip code that
participate, whether it's dealeror aftermarket, and you can
(15:05):
choose where you go and whatservice that you want.
You can price the service forparts and labor, all of those
things.
You can make an appointment andit's all completely free, and
that's usually the easiest wayto do that.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
And that's how my repair facility or maintenance
facility actually sends the dataon my car too.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Thank, you, that's correct.
They're just sending the VIN.
They, you know, hey, this VINgot an oil change, you know, got
a tire rotation, you know any?
Whatever happened to thatparticular piece of metal?
They'll share that and thenwe'll make it available right
back to.
If the owner has signed up forcar care.
It'll show up, usually within afew hours, and they can keep
(15:50):
track of their service andrepair history.
We'll let you know when yourcar needs to be re -registered,
we'll let you know if you havean open recall, just about
anything you need to know aboutthat car.
And this is all free.
We provide this completely forfree.
We have about 35 millionconsumers who have downloaded
the app and are using it everysingle day, put in their VIN and
(16:11):
we help them track the historyof their car.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So I can go on this app and log in my VIN number.
Will I be able to see anyinformation about my car?
That's already in there.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
Absolutely, absolutely Any service and
repair history, if you have anopen recall if your car needs to
be re-registered any of thoseand it's updated automatically.
As soon as new informationcomes in, it's updated.
And the really cool thing isyour history based value sits
there and you go get an oilchange.
You know scheduled maintenance.
(16:43):
You'll see it move up a littlebit.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
And that's pretty cool.
And if you're dealing with adealership or a used car
operator that advertises that hehas Carfax, and you walk in and
you say well, I don't have iton that one yet.
How long does it take him toproduce that document?
Speaker 5 (17:04):
Well, if it's a Carfax Advantage dealer, the
reports are generatedautomatically, so it's usually
available.
Independent dealers some ofthem do what we call a paper VIN
, so they may not be runningCarfax on every single car on
their lot, they may be runningit on specific cars or they may
only be running it when they'rebuying a car wholesale.
(17:25):
But our advantage dealers,which is the ones who, when you
walk in, they've got Carfaxeverywhere because they want you
to know that they're beingtransparent, that they want the
process to go well, but my gutis based on your question that
that might be one of thosedealers who's only running
Carfax on very specific cars.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well, that brings to my point, because the one I'm
talking about, they had all that.
They had signage, they had iton the door, they had a puppet
or something of that nature andno, they were clueless.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Absolutely clueless.
But it only takes the minutesto get the report.
I mean I've done the paper VINand I mean it doesn't take very
long to produce the report.
So I don't know why anybodywould say oh, we can't get it.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Well, somebody's dropped the ball somewhere.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
There's maybe a newbie that doesn't do it
Doesn't want to admit it.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
If you go to a shop, if you go to a dealership, used
or new, and they don't want toshow you the Carfax report you
probably might want to runExactly, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Put on those new run and shoes you got.
Faisal, it's great to talk toyou, my friend.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
As always, we appreciate it.
Great information, carfaxcom.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
Who doesn't know?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
about Carfax.
Thank you again.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Absolutely Take care ofyourselves guys, you too.
You bet Nice.
I know All right Time now forthe events calendar.
I know of an event that we'vegot coming up, two of them
actually.
We've got Woody's WaterfrontCar Show down in San Leon that's
(19:05):
coming up, and then we alsohave AutoRama.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Thanksgiving weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Those are two that I steal all your thunder.
I admit mean to.
No, you're okay, you're okay.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
He's true, he's got them on the cruise in Northside
Mustang Club.
They're on their cruise.
A few of them had chimed inearlier saying they were
listening to us while they wereon their cruise.
Oh, that's cool.
Hello, northside Mustang Club,enjoy yourselves as well.
Cruise in Sillsby 2023,september 29th through the 30th,
(19:39):
friday and Saturday night atthe Kirby Memorial Stadium in
Sillsby, texas, mars.
You need to be there becauseSeptember 30th you can start off
in Niederland Avenue cruise andcruise from Niederland to Main
Street and go to Sillsby.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Now I'm going to cruise to San Leon, to Woody's,
okay.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Well, we'll see you at Woody's.
It's only three blocks away.
And yeah, join us for Woody'sfor his fifth ever show put on
by Michael Woody at the what'sthe restaurant I don't know
Topwater Grill.
Topwater Grill in San Leonright out there on the on the
water Salads are awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
If you can get one, get one.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Also October 14th is the all British car show at the
Butler House off of Gosling Road.
October 20th is the 38th annualWolf Creek car and truck and
bike show in Cold Spring.
The Clear Lake car show withthe Elks Lodge and Kima is on
September 23rd and SaturdayOctober 28th is the Oak Turbo
(20:45):
Fest at Carrom Springs in Wacoand then the 17th annual Hot
Rods Heroes and Hot RodsVeterans Day show in downtown
Bastrop.
We had Bill Zleg on last weektalking about that and you know
that's always a good show.
I think they have a limit of400 cars.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I have to tell you that the only time that I've
ever been to downtown Bastropwas last year for the Corvette
Extravaganza, and it's a cutelittle town, but I'm always on
my way to Austin.
You're on the interstate, youdrive by on the highway.
Yeah, I've never gone todowntown Bastrop.
(21:26):
I was at Bastrop, I justthought it was the highway.
Junk shops along the way, alongwith some gasoline stations.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
No, it's a real honest to God town.
It's like three blocks north ofthe Water Burger.
That's right.
When you're driving by on thehighway and you see the Water
Burger, you just miss the exit.
It's about three blocks shortfrom there.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
There you go, cute little town.
Okay, time now for this hour'scar review.
I have a chance to drive theSubaru Crosstrek, which I'll
steal.
Your thunder is a gussied upimpressive, oh did you know that
Mars?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
No, I didn't.
Well, it is.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
It's, it's, it's a they've turned.
Now you do.
They turn the impressive in me,right there SUV.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
He called them Gussie .
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Gussie, go ahead that name, gussie.
So we're talking about the 2024Subaru Cross Trek premium.
This is the third generation ofthe Cross Trek and it's
available in five trim levels.
You've got a base, a premium,and then you get to the sport.
The limited and new this yearis the will, wildness,
wilderness.
I can't even read the wildest,I can't even ride and read my
(22:36):
own riding here.
It's the wildness, yeah, thewildness, so, anyway.
So this is a compact crossoverSUV and a lot of things are
carried over.
It's kind of a refresh thisyear and you got front.
You're going to find thatthere's a frameless hexagonal
grill with some compactheadlights.
You're going to find steeringhexagonal steering, responsive.
(22:57):
LED headlights with LED foglights, got a heated windshield,
heated side view mirrors on it,raised roof rails, got a
sunroof and it rolls on some 17inch alloy wheels.
Now this is an all wheel drivevehicle and so a lot of this is
set up for this.
The reason, one of the reasonsthis vehicle is so popular
because of all the all weatherthat it can handle in the all
(23:19):
wheel drive mode with the thingsthat it's got Now ours by being
the premium.
It wasn't the base model, soit's up one notch.
So we had the cloth interiorseating level set covers and it
was the heated front seats.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
There was a problem down there.
Yeah, there's a problem overhere.
Did you just eat some peanutbutter?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
So we had a really nice 11.6 inch touchscreen
infotainment system that was inthis car.
It was kind of it actuallyseemed really big for the
vehicle that we were in andthat's where you're going to
find your Subaru Starlink system.
It's going to be theinfotainment system, the nav,
all the things that they've gotin it which is new for this year
.
You're going to find your AppleCarPlay, android Auto.
There Now under the hood, thisis a boxer engine, so it's a
(24:02):
flat type engine.
We had the 2.0 liter.
Now if you step up into theupper trim levels it is a 2.5
liter.
So we had the smaller engine152 horsepower, 145 pound torque
, backed by a CVT.
Now this particular vehicle israted to tow 1500 pounds.
You get the bigger engine inthe upper trim levels.
(24:25):
It'll tow a little bit more.
Epa says you should be lookingfor about 27 in the city, 34 on
the highway combined for 29.
Now I drove this vehicle 342miles and I got 27.5 miles per
gallon over the course of thatweek.
Pretty good for your feds.
I thought it was a real goodand it's a smaller engine, but I
thought it handled really wellas far as the power levels on it
(24:47):
.
This is a kind of a firm ride.
It's all wheel drive standard.
It's not a race car, but it's avery confident, inspiring
driving experience.
You drive it, you know it's notgoing to be exciting, but you
know you feel good about it whenyou're driving it.
It's going to go where you wantit to go and how you want it to
go there.
Part of that is it's got to mea taller roof line, so it seems
(25:11):
like you've got a little moreheadroom on the inside of it,
particularly in the driver'sposition.
So the driver's view, the spanof view in it, I really like
that a lot better.
Now, the base trim price is$27,440.
The base model, which we wereone up off of that, is $26,290.
Did not have a Monroni withthis one, so I don't have an
exact price for this particularvehicle I was driving.
(25:33):
If you're looking for somethingto compare it to, though,
you're going to look overpossibly at the Ford Broncos 4th
that Don was talking aboutearlier.
$31,230 is what I had down onit.
The Jeep Compass is another onein that category for $28,000,
and the newer Mazda CX-30 is$22,950.
But again, that compactcrossover SUV segment is a
(25:56):
pretty popular segment.
There's a lot of competition inthere.
So there's a lot of variance inthe horsepower that you can get
as well as the features you canget in the car.
But again, if you're lookingfor that all-wheel drive vehicle
that gives you that confidence,inspiring driving experience
the Subaru Crosstrek is one ofthem.
You can look at Hexagonalgrille.
(26:17):
The hexagonal grille.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
The hexagonal grille.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I'm going to have to improve my riding.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
I may have to start typing it, or at least your
vocabulary.
And don't be eating peanutbutter just before you read that
you going to send that toSubaru.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I may have to edit a little bit, just a little Clean
it up a little bit.
I generally don't edit it verymuch.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Very much.
I think is the key word.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Exactly that's what we say during it.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
That's right how we can screw up his car review.
We don't do it intentionally,it just that there are things.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
It just comes too easy.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, it does come easy and I appreciate all the
help I know you do.
We wouldn't all be here if itweren't for things like that.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
It wasn't funny.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It was Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Well, we got 30 minutes left.
I'm ready to go now, but Iguess we'll stick around, suze
is out, it's a bad day to quitdrinking, is she?
Speaker 3 (27:20):
out Did.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I let her out.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
No, she's out, oh, she's knocked out.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Suze is snooze.
Yeah, she's over there.
Notice that she's found a niceplace underneath the camera that
you're looking at, on the coldconcrete.
On the cold concrete becauseit's cool.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
It's kind of like you Don.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
She walked around here earlier and then just
headed that way.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, you want to make sure everybody was in their
place yeah.
Make sure you still are.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
All right?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Hey, not that you'd ever do this, but I just thought
I'd let you know that thisprogram is available 24 seven
through iHeartRadio.
Just search in wheel time cartalk.
We also video stream onFacebook, youtube, twitch and in
wheel timecom, and 30 minutepodcasts are at your fingertips
on over a dozen of the mostpopular podcast outlets, and I
(28:06):
know that that's the one thatyou pick.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
And available for free in the App Store.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
The In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show continues right after
this quick break.
The original group of loopytortilla restaurants will have
you telling your family andfriends just what the original
recipes mean when it comes tothe best fajitas in southeast
Texas.
Founder Stan Holt invites youto visit the original loopy
tortilla near I-10 in Highway 6.
The original house thatinspired the design of all the
(28:31):
rest and the original charm thathelped make loopy tortilla the
go-to destination for HoustonTex-Mex.
Speaking of original, nothingcan compete with the original
lime pepper marinade.
That everyone will agree makesloopy tortilla award-winning
beef fajitas the best anywhere.
Loopy Tortilla Katie is anotherlocation that gives you the
same quality and servicehistorians have come to expect
at loopies.
It's located just off I-10 ofthe Grand Parkway.
(28:53):
At Kingsland Boulevard in Katie, find yourself an ackee land.
Head to the loopy tortillacollege station, located just
around the corner from KyleField.
It's a great place to enjoythose famous frozen margaritas
before or after the game.
Head east to Louisiana.
Stop in at the loopy tortillain Beaumont.
It twos on I-10.
You can't miss it.
The original group of loopytortilla restaurants invites you
in for the best Tex-Mexanywhere.
(29:14):
You own a car you love.
Why not let Gulf Coast AutoShield protect it.
Houstonian John Gray invitesyou to his state-of-the-art
facility to introduce you to hisspecialist team of auto
enthusiasts.
We promise you'll be impressed.
Whether you're looking tomassage your original paint to a
like-new appearance, apply aceramic coating, install a paint
protection film, nanoceramicwindow tint or new windshield
(29:36):
protection called ExoShield,gulf Coast Auto Shield is where
Houston's car people go.
Curb your wheels Instead ofbuying new.
Why not have them repaired?
How about a professionallyinstalled radar detector?
Gulf Coast Auto Shield doesthat too.
Get a peek inside the shop andlook at the services offered by
getting online and heading togcautoshieldcom.
Better yet, stop by theirfacility at 11275 South Sam
(29:59):
Houston Tullway, just south ofthe Southwest Freeway.
Get a personal tour.
Gulf Coast Auto Shield is yourplace to go for all things
exterior.
Call them today 832-930-5655 orgcautoshieldcom.
The award-winning in-wheel timecar talk show is available on
the most popular podcastchannels out there in 30-minute
episodes.
We realize our three-hour liveshow can be difficult to catch
(30:22):
in its entirety, so now you canlisten every day to a convenient
, fresh 30-minute episode.
Check us out on Apple Podcasts,spotify, google Podcasts,
amazon Music and Audible, alongwith a dozen more.
In-wheel time is the mostinformative automotive guest
interviews and new car reviews,along with popular features,
including Conrad's car clinicand this week in Auto History,
along with automotive newsheadlines.
(30:43):
Our live broadcast airs everySaturday, 8 to 11, central on
InWheelTimecom, the iHeart appand on YouTube.
Be sure to say hello when we'rebroadcasting from the tailpipes
and tacos cruise in Auto Ramand the Houston Auto Show, among
others.
Now it's easier than ever tohear about all things automotive
all week long.
You're invited to join fellowcar enthusiasts in becoming part
(31:04):
of the ever-growing InWheelTimecar talk family.
Don't forget those 30-minutepodcast episodes on your
favorite podcast channel.
That's it for this podcastepisode of the InWheelTime car
show.
I'm Don Armstrong, inviting youto join us for our live show
every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central on Facebook, youtube,
twitch and our InWheelTimecomwebsite.
(31:26):
Podcasts are available on ApplePodcasts, spotify, stitcher,
iheart Podcast, podcast addict.
Tune in Pandora.
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