October 28, 2023 • 35 mins
Ron starts this episode with an interview with Nora Naughton from Business Insider on the big 3 auto makers here in the US putting the brakes on EV’s : takes a call discussing start/stop technology : takes a call on a 92 F-150 where the caller is trying to get a hydraulic line for the clutch to properly connect : answers a letter on a 67 Pontiac and a discussion on muscle cars.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ron Anian. Why is PC and G promoting EVS When
I stand online in bagel stores and I talk to
the guys work in the lines and they say, there's
no way we're going to have an EV infrastructure. I
don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Is this a classic case of the Emperor has no clothes?
Who the car Doctor?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm all for moving forward, and I'm not an anti
electric I'm just anti stupidity. I keep saying that.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananian, the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in the garage doors.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Are open, but I am here to take your call
at eight five five five sixty nine hundred and now
Here's evs are in the news again. Listeners, welcome aboard
on a naming the car Doctor at your service. EV's
are in the news again. Hey, what the heck? They're
in the news every day lately, And a really great
article has come under under review by us, and we're
(01:14):
talking today to Nora Norton. Norton, I hope, I'm saying
that right, Norta. Let me bring in here real quick
from Business insider dot com that I get that right.
I'm always tough on last names.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yes, Nora, Notton, you got it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And Nora and Alexis Saint John together wrote an article
recently for Business insider dot com about EV's auto execs
aren't are coming clean, evs aren't working. No shock to
this mechanic turned radio journalists, so to speak. But Nora,
what's what's going on here? You talk about a lot
of things, a lot of issues with the EV's what's
(01:46):
the story?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, I think you know. We're we're at this weird
turning point in EV adoption. So the last three or
so years, since like late twenty nineteen, we've seen EV
sales really take off, right, but still in this segment
where growth is very easy. It's very easy to grow
(02:09):
from one percent to two percent to three percent, right,
And that was all driven by these wealthy early adopters
who want an EV for the sake of an EV,
aren't really worried about all the quirks that come with it,
have enough money to not care whether their car can't,
you know, make it four hundred miles because they have
(02:29):
another gas powered car in the driveway that can do
that job for them. And with that particular segment basically
faded in the last three or so years, we now
have regular joes who are shopping for evs and have
to make the decision to buy that over a gas
(02:51):
powered or a hybrid, and they're just not going to
make that choice. No real practical shopper can really make
the case unless they make a big wholesale life change.
And we were talking about, you know, rewiring your house,
potentially installing home chargers, changing the way that you fuel
(03:13):
your car. Instead of ten minute gas station stops, you're
doing thirty minutes in the parking lot at Target.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You know, and you're only getting and you're only getting
an eighty percent charge at that point, I believe in
those cases, right, so it's not even a full charge.
And then my argument, you know, as long as you
brought that up, if I can just jump in, oh
that's okay, good dog, he or she is protecting you.
You know, it's real. It's live radio, folks. This is
what happens. You know, you're in there and you're you're
(03:44):
charging your car in the parking lot of your favorite
wal Mart or Target, or the Garden State Parkway, you know,
service center, or wherever you are, and you know you're
a single person, you're a single woman. You're out at
ten o'clock at night. Are you comfortable sitting there in
the dark for thirty minutes or forty minutes, whatever the
case might be. There's a safety element to all of this,
whereas gas you're in and out in ten minutes and
(04:05):
down the road. So the whole recharge thing is an issue.
But in your story you talk about things that you know,
like General Motors Mary Barra. Your article says GM's Mary Barra,
historically one of the automotive industry's most bullish CEOs on
the future of electric vehicles, GM had been an early mover,
selling Chevrolet bolts for seven years and making bold claims.
I'm kind of paraphrasing here, but this week on GM's
(04:27):
third quarter earnings call, Barra and GM struck a more
so somber tone. Sober tone, I'm sorry the company announced
with its quarterly results that it's abandoning it's targets. I listen,
I'm not taking credit for this. I don't think I
instigated it. But I've been saying this for a long time.
Mark Mills from the Manhattan Institute has been with us.
He's been saying this. All of our experts, you guys
(04:47):
are you're saying the same thing in your story. You've
researched this, that GM is abandoning its targets to build
one hundred thousand evs in the second half of this
year and another four hundred thousand by the first six
months of twenty twenty four. GM doesn't know when it
will hit those targets. It sounds and you know the
article Ving goes on to talk about other car companies,
(05:07):
it sounds like they're sort of coming back to the
table going, hey, we just woke up. The party's over.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I mean to me, GM was the like the Canary
and the coal mine, right, because for the last few months,
we've seen a lot of car companies do these quiet
moves to pull back on their EV ambitions, you know,
like dropping a shift here and there, changing some you know,
(05:33):
long term outlooks and all that stuff. But for Mary
Bara to come on the earnings call and say, we
don't know when we're going to hit our EV targets.
After being you know, the zero zero zero CEO for
the last several years, like that was that was what
peaked me right, like, wow, there's something going on here.
(05:55):
And then just looking at what everybody else said this week,
we're automotive earnings. We just sort of combed through what
else are people saying about this this week? And it
turns out this is the topic? Dujure? You know this
twenty twenty three has been this watershed year for testing
Eavy adoption, and it turns out it's like not going
(06:17):
so well well, And I.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Think a lot of it is. I mean, wasn't there
a story in the news a couple of months or
a couple of weeks back the CEO or some executive
from Ford tried to go from Michigan to the Midway.
He went out somewhere out West Colorado or something in
an F one and fifty lightning and he couldn't get
a third of the way and he had problems finding chargers,
and you know, all sorts of issues. So you know,
(06:41):
I want to be eighteen again and lose forty pounds.
Neither of us going to happen anytime soon. So you
can imagine and have fantasy about whatever you want, but
you know, the ability to do all this and build
this infrastructure, it's just not going to happen. And I
think they're finding this out. The early adoption was easy, right,
because it's easy to take three percent of the market,
(07:01):
four percent of the market. But to get to the
point in the market from a business perspective where you've
got enough market share to drive the market, I think
that's the stone wall they've run into.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
No it is, and it's also it's a stone wall
they run into that was partially built by Elon Musk
because he has figured this out. Tesla has figured this out.
They are building at scale at profitability in a way
that they can drop their prices down to a level
that makes more sense to people, or you know, invest
(07:33):
in better charging infrastructure with the supercharger network, and so
you know, there is there's a company that is doing
this profitably and at scale. But because they have such
huge profit margins to play with, they can control the
pricing of the market. It leaves four GM, Volkswagen, all
(07:55):
these other companies out of luck, right that these these
cars that they're building that still don't turn a profit
now have to have these huge discounts on them, and
it's cutting even further into their profits. And as we
enter a much more uncertain economy for the next few years,
(08:15):
as interest rates are taking a hit to consumer demand
for vehicles, like, there's just it's not the same market
it was four or five years ago when all of
these plans.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Were laid, isn't it. You know, when you look at evs, right,
I look at evs from not just from an environmental
perspective and a mechanical perspective and are practical, but a
societal perspective. Right, affordability? You know, I see the average
price of a reasonable EV to be fifty to sixty grand.
You do you find something different? Is that a fair range?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
That is a fair range. It's still it's still unattainable
for a huge group of people, but it is a
no dive from where these prices stood on average even
at the beginning of this year. And you know, we
were in the sixty to seventy thousand dollars range at
the start of twenty twenty three, and the Tesla price
(09:12):
cuts have brought everybody down into this more mid fifties range.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, you know, in your in your story you've written
for Business Insider, dot com with Alexis Saint John. You
talk about Mercedes. Mercedes, you point out has had a
discount its EV's by several thousand dollars just to get
them into the customer's hands. Isn't mincing words that the
CEO isn't mincing words about the ev market or Mercedes
isn't CFO from Mercedes. Harold Wilhelm said, this is a
(09:38):
brutal space. I can hardly imagine the current status quo
is fully sustainable for everybody. So, you know, it sounds
like even somebody that's building a high end vehicle like Mercedes,
is saying, hey, maybe the EV's isn't the place to
be in terms of selling cars in the dominance that
we thought it was going to be. Nor are the
clocks going to grab us. Let's let let's let's take
a pause. When we come back, I want to talk
(09:59):
a little bit about the affordability of EV's and such.
I'm running inning in the car doctor. We're here with
Nora Norton of Business Insider dot com. We'll both return
right after this.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Don't go away, good time.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
Write it on the wall so you don't forget to
call for car advice. Done right eight five, five, five
six zero nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Now back to raw and we're back listeners, run an
inning in the Car Doctor. We're here today with Nora
Norton of a business insider business insider dot com. Nora,
when we when we pulled away, we were talking about
a variety of things. One of the things I wanted
to touch base on. You've written this article for Business
Insider dot com about EV's and the party seems to
be coming to an end or there's some there's some
(10:50):
cracks in the in the infrastructure. If I can say
that is affordability, you know, they they I think what
the car companies are seeing is something we've been saying
all along that you know, you go out to eat,
you go out to a you know, go to a
dine or go to a small restaurant or look at
people and what we'll call blue collar. Can they afford
an EV, whether it's used or new? Is that part
(11:12):
of the problem the car companies are hitting.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
That's absolutely a huge part of the problem that they're
hitting here. And you know, like I said before, even
though EV prices have come way down, it's still just
so far out of reach for the average customer, for
a blue collar customer, for someone who's not making six
figures a year to buy one of these cars. That
(11:37):
doesn't mean that that demand for electric vehicles doesn't exist.
I think that's a big, a big problem that I'm
seeing with any kind of like wholesale pullback on electric
cars is if you abandon that affordable segment, you are
abandoning people that do really want to go electric but
(11:58):
just can't afford it, you know. And that's something that
we see Tesla doing by pulling back the prices on
the Model three and the Model X. But uh, you know,
these car companies haven't figured out a way to make
money off of their evs yet, and they can only
cut the prices so low before they're just throwing money
(12:20):
on the pire.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Now it just they're just putting good money after bed.
I you know, we go out to eat it at
a local diner here in New Jersey on a regular basis,
and I get a different you know, waiter, waitress, server,
whatever the term is nowadays. And yeah, we get to
know all of them, and you know, I know what
they drive, and you know, I asked them, well, you know,
we talk about EV's. My wife loves us when I
(12:43):
do this at dinner and you know, listen, are you
ever going to I'll say to to a Dell, A Dell,
are you ever going to buy an electric vehicle? He says, no,
I could never afford it. You know, he's an older fella.
He's he's he's got a wife and three kids. He's
trying to put you know, two through college at the
same time. Like you know, he's just a typical guy working.
You know, he's driving right now, he's driving a twenty
(13:05):
ten Toyota Camry. Think about that. That's the car's fourteen
years old and it's got one hundred and eighty thousand
miles on it. Where is that? Is there an ev
equivalent of that for that person in that in that
budget category? Because I guarantee you that's a large portion
of the listening audience today. And you know how many
Americans are going to are in that category?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Right Yeah, there's a huge group of Americans that are
in that category. I can't tell you off the top
of my head exactly what their share is, but it's huge.
And those right now, those shoppers are ending up in
you know, the used maybe used hybrid market, the Chevy
(13:48):
Vault with a v which is a hybrid, is really
really popular on the used market. But what happens there
is good old flying demand comes into play, right, and
the fact that people really want these affordable used hybrids
drives that price up and still takes it out of
(14:11):
reality for a lot of people. So, you know, and
we're also seeing that in the new market too. I
have another story coming out soon about how you know,
there are these people who are desperate to go electric
and they they just can't make the the the math
add up, so they go they want a hybrid, but
they're you know, the industry has skipped over hybrids altogether
(14:33):
and there just aren't options. And again you run into
that same supply demand problem and these cars that should
be cheaper become more expensive. So it's really like it,
you know, it comes at you from all sides. If
you're someone who's really dedicated to going green and trying
to you know, like go electric, there are just a
(14:55):
ton of odds stacked against you right now.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And you know, maybe the next story is going to
be did America go to all in for the ev future?
That isn't there part of your story in Business Insider
dot Com one of your segments their talks. As inventory
builds up a dealerships, much to the tragrin of dealers,
car buyers are in luck if they're looking for a deal.
Unplugin vehicles, executors aren't finding even significant markdowns and discounts
(15:18):
are enough. These cars are taking dealers longer to sell
compared with their gas counterparts, as the next wave of
buyers focused on cost, infrastructure challenges, and lifestyle barriers to adopting,
which is what we're talking about. Just a few months
after dealers started coming forward to warn of slowing EV demand,
manufacturers appeared to be catching up in that reality. Ford
recently has found out that dealers are turning away the
(15:39):
mock e allocation. Of course, the MACHI was recently recalled.
They recalled the entire run for twenty two model year
twenty twenty two. I think it was because of software problems.
You know who's next. What's going to happen next? In
our closing two minutes, Nora, what can you tell us
what can we expect to see in the EV future?
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I think that, huh, We're going to see a much slower,
more pragmatic approach in the next few years. Like I said,
I think the last three years have been this like
runaway exponential growth, all in hype mode. Reality is setting
in and I think the next five years are going
(16:19):
to look a lot different. And I think we're going
to keep seeing executives tempering expectation, pushing out those those
goals and meeting with reality a lot more.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Are we maybe going to see ge wiz let's start
building more gas cars? I guess maybe.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I don't know. I think that we're so far past
that because this is an industry that has such long
lead time on vehicle development, and for a company like
GM and Ford to have already abandoned those ice like
product programs, you can't flip the switch and turn them
(17:01):
back on right, So, like the bed is really made,
when it comes to electrics and alternative fuel vehicles, they
have to back that up.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Right right, Hi, And the question is can they? And
you know? And will they? And you know? And then
again maybe the horse and buggy is going to come
back sometime soon, Nora. It's it's it's been great having
you here with us today. If the listeners want to
go and read some more and follow you guys up
on the web, what's the what's the web address they
want to go.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
To as a Business Insider dot com.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Okay, and we can look forward to a future story
regarding EVS and the transitions. Right, you'll continue forward. Well,
you'll be in touch with us. Right, we can get
you guys back and we can talk again.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Yes, oh yeah, absolutely anytime.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
You know, I want to close our conversation today. With
the end of your article. You talk about the haunt.
The CEO to share a maybe if I'm saying that
right said, the shifting ev environment is going to be
difficult to gauge. And I read that and I went, wow,
they're all kind of falling into the line saying the
same thing. Nora Norton Business Insider dot Com. It's been
an absolute pleasure. I'm running any in the car doctor.
(18:07):
We'll be back right after this. Don't go ahead.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Ron's in his own the Auto Zone studio and held
you back right after this. Welcome back to the Auto
(18:41):
Zone studio. Here's Ron.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Hey, welcome back running in the car doctor. You know,
I think the scariest part scary is probably not a
good word. I'm coming to my mother right and everything's scary.
But the part where Nora brought up that the car
companies can't turn back now that we're so far down
the EV rabbit hole. They can't reverse course or can
(19:07):
they reverse course, because they've committed so much resource and
energy and time to the EV future that apparently is
not going to be there. Something we've all kind of
new and thought about and talked about here for so many,
so many months and years. Now. I knew that we
(19:27):
had gone down the rabbit hole. I just wasn't sure
how far. You know. I've actually had some of the
companies that I do consulting for with scan tool technology
and you know, gasoline engine diagnostics and so forth. Yeah,
we're not we don't need to develop anything further because
we're going to be doing way with those programs in
the next five to seven years.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And there's the proof of it. Right. So we're creating
a product that doesn't work, we're creating a future that
doesn't work, and we can't reverse course. Well, we can,
but we just haven't triggered that part out yet. You
watch you You know, I got to give credit to
Mark Mills, right. Mark said this was going to happen,
and he's one of the few out there in the
forest that's loaded with crickets. When it comes to intelligent commentary,
(20:08):
Mark's one of the few that are making these comments,
and he was spot on. He said, within the next
the last time we had him, he said, within the
next two years, you're going to see them start to
back up. And he was right. He was right. They did. So,
you know, we'll have to get Mark back on. I
have to get Mark on. Maybe in a month or so,
we'll talk to him about that. Let's go over to
Marty in Vegas and see what's going on, Marty running
Indy in the car? Doctor, How can I help, Sir oh.
Speaker 7 (20:31):
I Ran I'm interested in isg I think is the
biggest waste on the planet. For example, I'm a driver
with less than fifteen thousand miles a year, and in
the best we can expect is a big clunk when
it stops and starts.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, stop start technology, you know, start stop technology. Marty
is there for two reasons. Really, it's there for emissions.
They're trying to lower emissions on vehicles or you know,
inner cities, sitting sitting in traffic lights, you know, in
order amount of times sitting in traffic jams. All right,
and truth be told. You know, you know, I wonder
(21:11):
is that where or why the EV concept has taken
such hold, because yeah, you will see evs in the
inner city. They're you know, it's planned roots. They're not
going to travel beyond x x y z for range.
They won't have to. And you'll see a stronger EV
presence in the future, but certainly not out in the
suburbs in the country as we once thought. From what
(21:32):
I'm seeing and reading, So start stop is there for
you know, shutting vehicles off zero emissions. That's what they're after.
They're after zero emissions. And the other thing I don't
like about EV's is the fact that I always worry
and wonder as the vehicle gets older, will it restart
if it shuts off at an intersection where you know,
(21:53):
let's just say there's listen, let's let's let's talk about
the eight hundred pound gerrill in the room. Nobody wants
to talk about. There are certain places, this's city streets,
neighborhoods where the cops will tell you don't stop, all right,
They'll tell you just drive through the stop sign and
just get to a safer part of town, so to speak.
And I always worry about that vehicle that comes up
to a start stop and whatever it doesn't start, and
(22:17):
you know, will that be the mechanical failure. I kind
of liked the security of when I start the vehicle
at home or business or in a shopping mall where
I'm surrounded by other cars. I started, it gets me home,
or it gets me where I'm going, and then it
shuts off. This is not a fan of start stop either, Marty. I.
You know there are ways, there are ways around it
(22:37):
to shut that off. What kind of vehicle is it?
Speaker 7 (22:41):
Oh? Particularly well right now, I mean a twenty seventeen
Kia Sportage, and I was going to make a change,
but now I decided not to because I don't like
that feature. Right, it's just still too clunky.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Now, if you could re remember to keep your foot
on the break, try popping it in neutral. See what happened?
Speaker 7 (23:06):
It just seems that yeah, well, right now, the seventeen
doesn't have ISOD. But you know, I was contemplating to
get a new.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Oh the newer ones. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
I decided now gotcha, And they do make that model.
Their lowest grade Sportage does not have ISOC but the
upper grades do. But you know, since I've had the
experience with is G, I literally hate it.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, it's it's an uneasy feeling, and I think they're
going to have a problem selling it, but they're going
to continue to try. Hey listen, they tried selling as EV's.
That didn't work so far, start stop does. My prediction
is you're going to see start stop probably phase away
too as we transition more either to evs where I
think we're going to go to hybrids. I think hybrids
are going to be the emissions clean up future that
(23:59):
we're all been looking for, and that's going to be
the next step.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
So yeah, I'm sure hoping that some way that hydrogen
you know, however you want to describe it, will be
the real future and elect evs are just a transition
to lower the emissions that are you know, we're mining
(24:24):
with now.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I think the issue with hydrogen and I get it,
you know what, I see nothing but good about hydrogen.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I think the issue with hydrogen is just going to
be similar to some of the problems with ev in
terms of infrastructure. You know, I think the cost right
now to build a hydrogen fuel refueling station is so
astronomical you couldn't justify it, and that that becomes the
biggest problem. So how will they get you know, how
will they get you so you can refuel without having
(24:53):
to go through such an expense. But we'll say, you
know what, it's it's all going to change in the
next two years, see which way it goes.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
So I'm looking I'm definitely looking forward to that, even
though I loved the ice engine and I threatened that
my next new CARO will be a sixty nine Chevelle
three ninety six FF.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, and you know what, to the majority of people
out there, they look at you like, what language is
he speaking? So that's right, it's it's I never thought
i'd see the day when people didn't understand hot rods,
but it's it's here now. Because you talk to people
hot rod language, they look at you like, wow, what
is he talking about. I watched a YouTube video the
other day some guy going through a junkyard and he
(25:35):
was trying to find just a quick story. He was
trying to find an old muscle card to reconstruct. By old,
he meant something from the nineties, and he came upon
a sixty nine Chevelle that was stuffed in the front,
and he said, oh, look at this, it's got a
big engine in it with a carburetor. I don't know
how to work on those. I didn't know what to
do with that. I just went, wow, you know that,
(25:58):
that's just so foreign to me. But as time goes on,
things change and the next generation comes up. It's okay.
So it's all good anyway, Marty. I appreciate the call.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
Sir.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
You'll be well and good lucky out there in Vegas Way.
Stay safe. I'm running Endy in the car doctor. We're
back right after this. Welcome back. We're running in the
(26:30):
car doctor here at eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. Give us a call. Let's get
over and talk to Joe and Iowa Joe. Welcome to
the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
After me?
Speaker 7 (26:41):
Yes, sir, Hey, I Ron.
Speaker 8 (26:43):
So this started out. It's my grandson's truck. It's a
ninety two to Ford F one fifty and what he
hasn't had it real ro long. But what happened and
it's he's an old conker, But what happened was it's
a manual transmission. So he was driving it and put
the clutching and stuff in the hydraulic clutch. Hydraulic plane
(27:03):
popped out of the slave clinder. So my kid, my
kid looked at it, and I think he put it
back together and it popped out again. So I got
I got a looking at it and stuff and found
out that there's supposed to be a bushing on the
fitting that goes in the slave cylinder. So we tried
(27:24):
to order some lines for it and had a little
issue there trying to find the height one to actually
fit it, but ended up with a braided stainless stew
braided hose or you know, tubing. And the end, I
tried to get the darn thing together at the slave cylinder,
and when you try to push it in, there's a
spring clip. I mean this. I think he laid the
(27:45):
spring clip on the slave cylinder, you know, and it
locks it in place when you get it shoved in correct.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So I think there's nothing. There's nothing for you to
remove at the slave you know, if you were going
to take that apart, there's a special tool that you
would slide into that bushing at the slave cylinder itself,
and you would leverage the white collar towards the slave
and the line would pop out that releases the internal
mechanism of the slave. So there's there's not there's not
(28:14):
a lot to this, Joe. You know the end of
your line, The end of your line has a little bump, right,
It has like a like a the line was compressed
when they made it. It just has a bump in
it around the circumference of the line that the slave
cylinder clips onto. Correct or you're supposed to. It's a crimp.
There's there's a there's a crimp at the end of
(28:34):
the line about about three it's of an engine from
the end.
Speaker 8 (28:39):
Yeah, it's crimped. The tubing's crimped on right right on
this new one.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Well, do you have a crimp on the old line?
Speaker 8 (28:49):
It's got it's like that black heat shrink tubing, right.
I didn't look at it that close as far as
that what what you know, how it goes together. It
just looks like it shoved on and like a press
fit is what kind of looks like to me.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
There's got to be a might have it. There's got
to be a crimp in that old nylon line. If
there isn't, how do you know a piece of the
old line isn't broken off in the slave.
Speaker 8 (29:14):
Well, what the fitting that goes in the slave cylinder's aluminum?
It's aluminum piece, and that aluminum piece is fastened in
the tubing.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Okay, so so then the aluminum tube has the crimp
on it. Correct.
Speaker 8 (29:33):
Well, it's not aluminum, it's it's just a machine aluminum
piece that Joe.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Time out, Joe, time out. I've only got three minutes here.
The piece that pushes into the slave cylinder is made
out of what material? Plastic or aluminum?
Speaker 7 (29:48):
It's aluminum?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Okay? Is that piece? Is that piece out of the
slave the old part I'm talking about the part that
popped out.
Speaker 8 (29:57):
Yeah, I mean it looks like everything's out. I can
put the old line on and it'll go in place
until I got a bushing for it. Until I put
the bushing on, and it it won't go.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
In Well, what what bushing are you replacing? There's no
replaceable parts here, Joe. You're either putting a complete slave
on with the bushing and the collar, or you're putting
you're buying a line. Those are the only two parts
I've ever seen available for that. What pushing are you
talking about?
Speaker 8 (30:21):
Well, I got a bushing from the new line that
I'm trying to since since I couldn't get to the
new line popped in place, I thought i'd try that
bushing on that old line. Which the old line's okay,
it just popped. It just keeps popping out.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Are you reusing the Are you reusing the original slave cylinder? Joe?
Speaker 8 (30:43):
Well, yeah, because the otherwise you gotta pull the transmission
and all.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That out, Joe. If the line, if the line doesn't
go in and clip into places, then the slave cylinder
has an issue that's worn or damaged or missing something
that when it popped the part it fell apart and
you need to put a slave in it. This isn't
complexd this, Joe, This isn't complicated.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
I'm yeah, I know that's it, but I got to
so my question one of my questions though, is this
new line I got is analyzed in black. That end
fitting is black and and I don't know if it
makes a difference, but the other on the slaves Owner's gold,
do they have different ends? You recall, not that I don't.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Work, I've seen I've seen I've seen them made out
of different material things that won't rust get corroded and such.
But you know the line is the same. It's a
it's a crimped ribbed end about three eighths of an echin.
It just pushes into a Chinese handcuff style clip, pops
into the place, locks in the place. You're done. What
I would tell you to do, go down, go down
(31:50):
to your local AutoZone, ask them for a clutch slave
cylinder and look at it. Look at that clutch slave
down there. Make sure that all the pieces that are
on that clutch slave are on your clutch slave. Because
I think you're gonna find something is missing. Go buy
a new clutch slave and pop your new line into it.
It should pop together, or you've got a mismatch of parts.
(32:11):
This is this is There's not a lot here. This
is two and two plus two and two makes four
every time. So there's yeah, there's there's there's there's don't
overthink this. You're overthinking.
Speaker 8 (32:23):
It's pretty it's pretty simple. You know, it just won't
go together. It could be that slave cylinder's little egg
shaped too.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Well, right, If that, if that, if that slave cylinder
is egg shaped at all, If that slave cylinder is
egg shaped at all, it's not going to go together.
This is a very precise fit. I'd be more curious
why that line popped out. And I'm willing to bet
that line popped out because the old slave cylinder is damaged, worn, oblong, rusted,
crouded up or something, because this should have been a
(32:52):
matter of take the new line, pop it in, boom.
You're done. So get down to your local AutoZone look
at a new one. You know why you're buying bushings
and all these other things. I can't understand that. I
have to see pictures, but to me, it sounds like
you've got a problem with the slave and just because
it's in the trans and you don't want to pull it,
you know what, I want to be eighteen again, not
going to happen. Don't attack it from that perspective. I'm
(33:14):
Ron an Ay in the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Look back. I'm name of the car doctor.
I thought we'd finished the hour today with a letter
from Joffrey who writes in and this is sort of
(33:35):
because you know, we started the hour with technology and evs.
I think we'll end it here with muscle cars.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Ron.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
I'm a small business owner up here in New York State.
Saturday marks the end of the work week. For me,
listening to this show is the perfect cap to my week.
Along with the technical support you give your listeners, there's
also a philosophical aspect I personally enjoy. Thank you. It
reminds me of reading Zen. In the art of motorcycle maintenance,
my question is this. I have a nineteen sixty six
GTO I purchased back in nineteen ninety three. The original
three D nine grew tired after discovering it was in
(34:01):
a numbers matching block. I made the choice two years ago.
I'd have a new four to sixty eight Pointiact, blueprinted
and built out of a sixty seven to four hundred,
replacing the tripower with a four barrel. I could never
get the four barrel properly tuned, so my mechanic talk
me into converting at the fuel injection. The car now
runs like a watch with zero issues, and the fuel
injection system is incredibly easy to tune. The problem now
is I have this empty feeling that I've done something
(34:21):
wrong in the cosmos of muscle cars. Just curious on
what your thoughts are and making older cars run better
with modern technology and why I have the desire to
put the carbator back on this motor when it has
never performed better. Thanks again for all you do. Jeoffrey. Listen,
I'll tell you what. I think you did the right thing.
It didn't run right.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Part of the problem we're up against and making the
older cars un correctly is lack of quality parts. It's
a huge problem. I've got a trailer next to the
shop filled with all the parts that didn't work, and
I'm not sure why I keep them. Maybe I'm hoping
some day to correct them. But yeah, I get it.
I think he did fine. I would probably have done
the same thing. If you really want a numbers matching original,
gto go buy one. Keep that one for what it is.
(34:57):
It's a fun Sunday car and some of the re
cruising with your elbow out the window and the window down,
and a cool summer day. I'm on an ad in
the car. Doctor. I'll see you in the next time.
Good mechanics aren't expensive, They're priceless.
Ron Anian. Why is PC and G promoting EVS When
I stand online in bagel stores and I talk to
the guys work in the lines and they say, there's
no way we're going to have an EV infrastructure. I
don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Is this a classic case of the Emperor has no clothes?
Who the car Doctor?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm all for moving forward, and I'm not an anti
electric I'm just anti stupidity. I keep saying that.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome to the radio home of ron Ananian, the Car Doctor.
Since nineteen ninety one, this is where car owners the
world overturned to for their definitive opinion on automotive repair.
If your mechanics giving you a busy signal, pick up
the phone and call in the garage doors.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Are open, but I am here to take your call
at eight five five five sixty nine hundred and now
Here's evs are in the news again. Listeners, welcome aboard
on a naming the car Doctor at your service. EV's
are in the news again. Hey, what the heck? They're
in the news every day lately, And a really great
article has come under under review by us, and we're
(01:14):
talking today to Nora Norton. Norton, I hope, I'm saying
that right, Norta. Let me bring in here real quick
from Business insider dot com that I get that right.
I'm always tough on last names.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yes, Nora, Notton, you got it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And Nora and Alexis Saint John together wrote an article
recently for Business insider dot com about EV's auto execs
aren't are coming clean, evs aren't working. No shock to
this mechanic turned radio journalists, so to speak. But Nora,
what's what's going on here? You talk about a lot
of things, a lot of issues with the EV's what's
(01:46):
the story?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, I think you know. We're we're at this weird
turning point in EV adoption. So the last three or
so years, since like late twenty nineteen, we've seen EV
sales really take off, right, but still in this segment
where growth is very easy. It's very easy to grow
(02:09):
from one percent to two percent to three percent, right,
And that was all driven by these wealthy early adopters
who want an EV for the sake of an EV,
aren't really worried about all the quirks that come with it,
have enough money to not care whether their car can't,
you know, make it four hundred miles because they have
(02:29):
another gas powered car in the driveway that can do
that job for them. And with that particular segment basically
faded in the last three or so years, we now
have regular joes who are shopping for evs and have
to make the decision to buy that over a gas
(02:51):
powered or a hybrid, and they're just not going to
make that choice. No real practical shopper can really make
the case unless they make a big wholesale life change.
And we were talking about, you know, rewiring your house,
potentially installing home chargers, changing the way that you fuel
(03:13):
your car. Instead of ten minute gas station stops, you're
doing thirty minutes in the parking lot at Target.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You know, and you're only getting and you're only getting
an eighty percent charge at that point, I believe in
those cases, right, so it's not even a full charge.
And then my argument, you know, as long as you
brought that up, if I can just jump in, oh
that's okay, good dog, he or she is protecting you.
You know, it's real. It's live radio, folks. This is
what happens. You know, you're in there and you're you're
(03:44):
charging your car in the parking lot of your favorite
wal Mart or Target, or the Garden State Parkway, you know,
service center, or wherever you are, and you know you're
a single person, you're a single woman. You're out at
ten o'clock at night. Are you comfortable sitting there in
the dark for thirty minutes or forty minutes, whatever the
case might be. There's a safety element to all of this,
whereas gas you're in and out in ten minutes and
(04:05):
down the road. So the whole recharge thing is an issue.
But in your story you talk about things that you know,
like General Motors Mary Barra. Your article says GM's Mary Barra,
historically one of the automotive industry's most bullish CEOs on
the future of electric vehicles, GM had been an early mover,
selling Chevrolet bolts for seven years and making bold claims.
I'm kind of paraphrasing here, but this week on GM's
(04:27):
third quarter earnings call, Barra and GM struck a more
so somber tone. Sober tone, I'm sorry the company announced
with its quarterly results that it's abandoning it's targets. I listen,
I'm not taking credit for this. I don't think I
instigated it. But I've been saying this for a long time.
Mark Mills from the Manhattan Institute has been with us.
He's been saying this. All of our experts, you guys
(04:47):
are you're saying the same thing in your story. You've
researched this, that GM is abandoning its targets to build
one hundred thousand evs in the second half of this
year and another four hundred thousand by the first six
months of twenty twenty four. GM doesn't know when it
will hit those targets. It sounds and you know the
article Ving goes on to talk about other car companies,
(05:07):
it sounds like they're sort of coming back to the
table going, hey, we just woke up. The party's over.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I mean to me, GM was the like the Canary
and the coal mine, right, because for the last few months,
we've seen a lot of car companies do these quiet
moves to pull back on their EV ambitions, you know,
like dropping a shift here and there, changing some you know,
(05:33):
long term outlooks and all that stuff. But for Mary
Bara to come on the earnings call and say, we
don't know when we're going to hit our EV targets.
After being you know, the zero zero zero CEO for
the last several years, like that was that was what
peaked me right, like, wow, there's something going on here.
(05:55):
And then just looking at what everybody else said this week,
we're automotive earnings. We just sort of combed through what
else are people saying about this this week? And it
turns out this is the topic? Dujure? You know this
twenty twenty three has been this watershed year for testing
Eavy adoption, and it turns out it's like not going
(06:17):
so well well, And I.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Think a lot of it is. I mean, wasn't there
a story in the news a couple of months or
a couple of weeks back the CEO or some executive
from Ford tried to go from Michigan to the Midway.
He went out somewhere out West Colorado or something in
an F one and fifty lightning and he couldn't get
a third of the way and he had problems finding chargers,
and you know, all sorts of issues. So you know,
(06:41):
I want to be eighteen again and lose forty pounds.
Neither of us going to happen anytime soon. So you
can imagine and have fantasy about whatever you want, but
you know, the ability to do all this and build
this infrastructure, it's just not going to happen. And I
think they're finding this out. The early adoption was easy, right,
because it's easy to take three percent of the market,
(07:01):
four percent of the market. But to get to the
point in the market from a business perspective where you've
got enough market share to drive the market, I think
that's the stone wall they've run into.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
No it is, and it's also it's a stone wall
they run into that was partially built by Elon Musk
because he has figured this out. Tesla has figured this out.
They are building at scale at profitability in a way
that they can drop their prices down to a level
that makes more sense to people, or you know, invest
(07:33):
in better charging infrastructure with the supercharger network, and so
you know, there is there's a company that is doing
this profitably and at scale. But because they have such
huge profit margins to play with, they can control the
pricing of the market. It leaves four GM, Volkswagen, all
(07:55):
these other companies out of luck, right that these these
cars that they're building that still don't turn a profit
now have to have these huge discounts on them, and
it's cutting even further into their profits. And as we
enter a much more uncertain economy for the next few years,
(08:15):
as interest rates are taking a hit to consumer demand
for vehicles, like, there's just it's not the same market
it was four or five years ago when all of
these plans.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Were laid, isn't it. You know, when you look at evs, right,
I look at evs from not just from an environmental
perspective and a mechanical perspective and are practical, but a
societal perspective. Right, affordability? You know, I see the average
price of a reasonable EV to be fifty to sixty grand.
You do you find something different? Is that a fair range?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
That is a fair range. It's still it's still unattainable
for a huge group of people, but it is a
no dive from where these prices stood on average even
at the beginning of this year. And you know, we
were in the sixty to seventy thousand dollars range at
the start of twenty twenty three, and the Tesla price
(09:12):
cuts have brought everybody down into this more mid fifties range.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, you know, in your in your story you've written
for Business Insider, dot com with Alexis Saint John. You
talk about Mercedes. Mercedes, you point out has had a
discount its EV's by several thousand dollars just to get
them into the customer's hands. Isn't mincing words that the
CEO isn't mincing words about the ev market or Mercedes
isn't CFO from Mercedes. Harold Wilhelm said, this is a
(09:38):
brutal space. I can hardly imagine the current status quo
is fully sustainable for everybody. So, you know, it sounds
like even somebody that's building a high end vehicle like Mercedes,
is saying, hey, maybe the EV's isn't the place to
be in terms of selling cars in the dominance that
we thought it was going to be. Nor are the
clocks going to grab us. Let's let let's let's take
a pause. When we come back, I want to talk
(09:59):
a little bit about the affordability of EV's and such.
I'm running inning in the car doctor. We're here with
Nora Norton of Business Insider dot com. We'll both return
right after this.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Don't go away, good time.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
Write it on the wall so you don't forget to
call for car advice. Done right eight five, five, five
six zero nine nine zero zero.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Now back to raw and we're back listeners, run an
inning in the Car Doctor. We're here today with Nora
Norton of a business insider business insider dot com. Nora,
when we when we pulled away, we were talking about
a variety of things. One of the things I wanted
to touch base on. You've written this article for Business
Insider dot com about EV's and the party seems to
be coming to an end or there's some there's some
(10:50):
cracks in the in the infrastructure. If I can say
that is affordability, you know, they they I think what
the car companies are seeing is something we've been saying
all along that you know, you go out to eat,
you go out to a you know, go to a
dine or go to a small restaurant or look at
people and what we'll call blue collar. Can they afford
an EV, whether it's used or new? Is that part
(11:12):
of the problem the car companies are hitting.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
That's absolutely a huge part of the problem that they're
hitting here. And you know, like I said before, even
though EV prices have come way down, it's still just
so far out of reach for the average customer, for
a blue collar customer, for someone who's not making six
figures a year to buy one of these cars. That
(11:37):
doesn't mean that that demand for electric vehicles doesn't exist.
I think that's a big, a big problem that I'm
seeing with any kind of like wholesale pullback on electric
cars is if you abandon that affordable segment, you are
abandoning people that do really want to go electric but
(11:58):
just can't afford it, you know. And that's something that
we see Tesla doing by pulling back the prices on
the Model three and the Model X. But uh, you know,
these car companies haven't figured out a way to make
money off of their evs yet, and they can only
cut the prices so low before they're just throwing money
(12:20):
on the pire.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Now it just they're just putting good money after bed.
I you know, we go out to eat it at
a local diner here in New Jersey on a regular basis,
and I get a different you know, waiter, waitress, server,
whatever the term is nowadays. And yeah, we get to
know all of them, and you know, I know what
they drive, and you know, I asked them, well, you know,
we talk about EV's. My wife loves us when I
(12:43):
do this at dinner and you know, listen, are you
ever going to I'll say to to a Dell, A Dell,
are you ever going to buy an electric vehicle? He says, no,
I could never afford it. You know, he's an older fella.
He's he's he's got a wife and three kids. He's
trying to put you know, two through college at the
same time. Like you know, he's just a typical guy working.
You know, he's driving right now, he's driving a twenty
(13:05):
ten Toyota Camry. Think about that. That's the car's fourteen
years old and it's got one hundred and eighty thousand
miles on it. Where is that? Is there an ev
equivalent of that for that person in that in that
budget category? Because I guarantee you that's a large portion
of the listening audience today. And you know how many
Americans are going to are in that category?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Right Yeah, there's a huge group of Americans that are
in that category. I can't tell you off the top
of my head exactly what their share is, but it's huge.
And those right now, those shoppers are ending up in
you know, the used maybe used hybrid market, the Chevy
(13:48):
Vault with a v which is a hybrid, is really
really popular on the used market. But what happens there
is good old flying demand comes into play, right, and
the fact that people really want these affordable used hybrids
drives that price up and still takes it out of
(14:11):
reality for a lot of people. So, you know, and
we're also seeing that in the new market too. I
have another story coming out soon about how you know,
there are these people who are desperate to go electric
and they they just can't make the the the math
add up, so they go they want a hybrid, but
they're you know, the industry has skipped over hybrids altogether
(14:33):
and there just aren't options. And again you run into
that same supply demand problem and these cars that should
be cheaper become more expensive. So it's really like it,
you know, it comes at you from all sides. If
you're someone who's really dedicated to going green and trying
to you know, like go electric, there are just a
(14:55):
ton of odds stacked against you right now.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
And you know, maybe the next story is going to
be did America go to all in for the ev future?
That isn't there part of your story in Business Insider
dot Com one of your segments their talks. As inventory
builds up a dealerships, much to the tragrin of dealers,
car buyers are in luck if they're looking for a deal.
Unplugin vehicles, executors aren't finding even significant markdowns and discounts
(15:18):
are enough. These cars are taking dealers longer to sell
compared with their gas counterparts, as the next wave of
buyers focused on cost, infrastructure challenges, and lifestyle barriers to adopting,
which is what we're talking about. Just a few months
after dealers started coming forward to warn of slowing EV demand,
manufacturers appeared to be catching up in that reality. Ford
recently has found out that dealers are turning away the
(15:39):
mock e allocation. Of course, the MACHI was recently recalled.
They recalled the entire run for twenty two model year
twenty twenty two. I think it was because of software problems.
You know who's next. What's going to happen next? In
our closing two minutes, Nora, what can you tell us
what can we expect to see in the EV future?
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I think that, huh, We're going to see a much slower,
more pragmatic approach in the next few years. Like I said,
I think the last three years have been this like
runaway exponential growth, all in hype mode. Reality is setting
in and I think the next five years are going
(16:19):
to look a lot different. And I think we're going
to keep seeing executives tempering expectation, pushing out those those
goals and meeting with reality a lot more.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Are we maybe going to see ge wiz let's start
building more gas cars? I guess maybe.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I don't know. I think that we're so far past
that because this is an industry that has such long
lead time on vehicle development, and for a company like
GM and Ford to have already abandoned those ice like
product programs, you can't flip the switch and turn them
(17:01):
back on right, So, like the bed is really made,
when it comes to electrics and alternative fuel vehicles, they
have to back that up.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Right right, Hi, And the question is can they? And
you know? And will they? And you know? And then
again maybe the horse and buggy is going to come
back sometime soon, Nora. It's it's it's been great having
you here with us today. If the listeners want to
go and read some more and follow you guys up
on the web, what's the what's the web address they
want to go.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
To as a Business Insider dot com.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Okay, and we can look forward to a future story
regarding EVS and the transitions. Right, you'll continue forward. Well,
you'll be in touch with us. Right, we can get
you guys back and we can talk again.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Yes, oh yeah, absolutely anytime.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
You know, I want to close our conversation today. With
the end of your article. You talk about the haunt.
The CEO to share a maybe if I'm saying that
right said, the shifting ev environment is going to be
difficult to gauge. And I read that and I went, wow,
they're all kind of falling into the line saying the
same thing. Nora Norton Business Insider dot Com. It's been
an absolute pleasure. I'm running any in the car doctor.
(18:07):
We'll be back right after this. Don't go ahead.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Ron's in his own the Auto Zone studio and held
you back right after this. Welcome back to the Auto
(18:41):
Zone studio. Here's Ron.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Hey, welcome back running in the car doctor. You know,
I think the scariest part scary is probably not a
good word. I'm coming to my mother right and everything's scary.
But the part where Nora brought up that the car
companies can't turn back now that we're so far down
the EV rabbit hole. They can't reverse course or can
(19:07):
they reverse course, because they've committed so much resource and
energy and time to the EV future that apparently is
not going to be there. Something we've all kind of
new and thought about and talked about here for so many,
so many months and years. Now. I knew that we
(19:27):
had gone down the rabbit hole. I just wasn't sure
how far. You know. I've actually had some of the
companies that I do consulting for with scan tool technology
and you know, gasoline engine diagnostics and so forth. Yeah,
we're not we don't need to develop anything further because
we're going to be doing way with those programs in
the next five to seven years.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And there's the proof of it. Right. So we're creating
a product that doesn't work, we're creating a future that
doesn't work, and we can't reverse course. Well, we can,
but we just haven't triggered that part out yet. You
watch you You know, I got to give credit to
Mark Mills, right. Mark said this was going to happen,
and he's one of the few out there in the
forest that's loaded with crickets. When it comes to intelligent commentary,
(20:08):
Mark's one of the few that are making these comments,
and he was spot on. He said, within the next
the last time we had him, he said, within the
next two years, you're going to see them start to
back up. And he was right. He was right. They did. So,
you know, we'll have to get Mark back on. I
have to get Mark on. Maybe in a month or so,
we'll talk to him about that. Let's go over to
Marty in Vegas and see what's going on, Marty running
Indy in the car? Doctor, How can I help, Sir oh.
Speaker 7 (20:31):
I Ran I'm interested in isg I think is the
biggest waste on the planet. For example, I'm a driver
with less than fifteen thousand miles a year, and in
the best we can expect is a big clunk when
it stops and starts.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, stop start technology, you know, start stop technology. Marty
is there for two reasons. Really, it's there for emissions.
They're trying to lower emissions on vehicles or you know,
inner cities, sitting sitting in traffic lights, you know, in
order amount of times sitting in traffic jams. All right,
and truth be told. You know, you know, I wonder
(21:11):
is that where or why the EV concept has taken
such hold, because yeah, you will see evs in the
inner city. They're you know, it's planned roots. They're not
going to travel beyond x x y z for range.
They won't have to. And you'll see a stronger EV
presence in the future, but certainly not out in the
suburbs in the country as we once thought. From what
(21:32):
I'm seeing and reading, So start stop is there for
you know, shutting vehicles off zero emissions. That's what they're after.
They're after zero emissions. And the other thing I don't
like about EV's is the fact that I always worry
and wonder as the vehicle gets older, will it restart
if it shuts off at an intersection where you know,
(21:53):
let's just say there's listen, let's let's let's talk about
the eight hundred pound gerrill in the room. Nobody wants
to talk about. There are certain places, this's city streets,
neighborhoods where the cops will tell you don't stop, all right,
They'll tell you just drive through the stop sign and
just get to a safer part of town, so to speak.
And I always worry about that vehicle that comes up
to a start stop and whatever it doesn't start, and
(22:17):
you know, will that be the mechanical failure. I kind
of liked the security of when I start the vehicle
at home or business or in a shopping mall where
I'm surrounded by other cars. I started, it gets me home,
or it gets me where I'm going, and then it
shuts off. This is not a fan of start stop either, Marty. I.
You know there are ways, there are ways around it
(22:37):
to shut that off. What kind of vehicle is it?
Speaker 7 (22:41):
Oh? Particularly well right now, I mean a twenty seventeen
Kia Sportage, and I was going to make a change,
but now I decided not to because I don't like
that feature. Right, it's just still too clunky.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Now, if you could re remember to keep your foot
on the break, try popping it in neutral. See what happened?
Speaker 7 (23:06):
It just seems that yeah, well, right now, the seventeen
doesn't have ISOD. But you know, I was contemplating to
get a new.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Oh the newer ones. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
I decided now gotcha, And they do make that model.
Their lowest grade Sportage does not have ISOC but the
upper grades do. But you know, since I've had the
experience with is G, I literally hate it.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, it's it's an uneasy feeling, and I think they're
going to have a problem selling it, but they're going
to continue to try. Hey listen, they tried selling as EV's.
That didn't work so far, start stop does. My prediction
is you're going to see start stop probably phase away
too as we transition more either to evs where I
think we're going to go to hybrids. I think hybrids
are going to be the emissions clean up future that
(23:59):
we're all been looking for, and that's going to be
the next step.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
So yeah, I'm sure hoping that some way that hydrogen
you know, however you want to describe it, will be
the real future and elect evs are just a transition
to lower the emissions that are you know, we're mining
(24:24):
with now.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I think the issue with hydrogen and I get it,
you know what, I see nothing but good about hydrogen.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I think the issue with hydrogen is just going to
be similar to some of the problems with ev in
terms of infrastructure. You know, I think the cost right
now to build a hydrogen fuel refueling station is so
astronomical you couldn't justify it, and that that becomes the
biggest problem. So how will they get you know, how
will they get you so you can refuel without having
(24:53):
to go through such an expense. But we'll say, you
know what, it's it's all going to change in the
next two years, see which way it goes.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
So I'm looking I'm definitely looking forward to that, even
though I loved the ice engine and I threatened that
my next new CARO will be a sixty nine Chevelle
three ninety six FF.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, and you know what, to the majority of people
out there, they look at you like, what language is
he speaking? So that's right, it's it's I never thought
i'd see the day when people didn't understand hot rods,
but it's it's here now. Because you talk to people
hot rod language, they look at you like, wow, what
is he talking about. I watched a YouTube video the
other day some guy going through a junkyard and he
(25:35):
was trying to find just a quick story. He was
trying to find an old muscle card to reconstruct. By old,
he meant something from the nineties, and he came upon
a sixty nine Chevelle that was stuffed in the front,
and he said, oh, look at this, it's got a
big engine in it with a carburetor. I don't know
how to work on those. I didn't know what to
do with that. I just went, wow, you know that,
(25:58):
that's just so foreign to me. But as time goes on,
things change and the next generation comes up. It's okay.
So it's all good anyway, Marty. I appreciate the call.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
Sir.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
You'll be well and good lucky out there in Vegas Way.
Stay safe. I'm running Endy in the car doctor. We're
back right after this. Welcome back. We're running in the
(26:30):
car doctor here at eight five five five six zero
nine nine zero zero. Give us a call. Let's get
over and talk to Joe and Iowa Joe. Welcome to
the car doctor, sir. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
After me?
Speaker 7 (26:41):
Yes, sir, Hey, I Ron.
Speaker 8 (26:43):
So this started out. It's my grandson's truck. It's a
ninety two to Ford F one fifty and what he
hasn't had it real ro long. But what happened and
it's he's an old conker, But what happened was it's
a manual transmission. So he was driving it and put
the clutching and stuff in the hydraulic clutch. Hydraulic plane
(27:03):
popped out of the slave clinder. So my kid, my
kid looked at it, and I think he put it
back together and it popped out again. So I got
I got a looking at it and stuff and found
out that there's supposed to be a bushing on the
fitting that goes in the slave cylinder. So we tried
(27:24):
to order some lines for it and had a little
issue there trying to find the height one to actually
fit it, but ended up with a braided stainless stew
braided hose or you know, tubing. And the end, I
tried to get the darn thing together at the slave cylinder,
and when you try to push it in, there's a
spring clip. I mean this. I think he laid the
(27:45):
spring clip on the slave cylinder, you know, and it
locks it in place when you get it shoved in correct.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So I think there's nothing. There's nothing for you to
remove at the slave you know, if you were going
to take that apart, there's a special tool that you
would slide into that bushing at the slave cylinder itself,
and you would leverage the white collar towards the slave
and the line would pop out that releases the internal
mechanism of the slave. So there's there's not there's not
(28:14):
a lot to this, Joe. You know the end of
your line, The end of your line has a little bump, right,
It has like a like a the line was compressed
when they made it. It just has a bump in
it around the circumference of the line that the slave
cylinder clips onto. Correct or you're supposed to. It's a crimp.
There's there's a there's a crimp at the end of
(28:34):
the line about about three it's of an engine from
the end.
Speaker 8 (28:39):
Yeah, it's crimped. The tubing's crimped on right right on
this new one.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Well, do you have a crimp on the old line?
Speaker 8 (28:49):
It's got it's like that black heat shrink tubing, right.
I didn't look at it that close as far as
that what what you know, how it goes together. It
just looks like it shoved on and like a press
fit is what kind of looks like to me.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
There's got to be a might have it. There's got
to be a crimp in that old nylon line. If
there isn't, how do you know a piece of the
old line isn't broken off in the slave.
Speaker 8 (29:14):
Well, what the fitting that goes in the slave cylinder's aluminum?
It's aluminum piece, and that aluminum piece is fastened in
the tubing.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Okay, so so then the aluminum tube has the crimp
on it. Correct.
Speaker 8 (29:33):
Well, it's not aluminum, it's it's just a machine aluminum
piece that Joe.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Time out, Joe, time out. I've only got three minutes here.
The piece that pushes into the slave cylinder is made
out of what material? Plastic or aluminum?
Speaker 7 (29:48):
It's aluminum?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Okay? Is that piece? Is that piece out of the
slave the old part I'm talking about the part that
popped out.
Speaker 8 (29:57):
Yeah, I mean it looks like everything's out. I can
put the old line on and it'll go in place
until I got a bushing for it. Until I put
the bushing on, and it it won't go.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
In Well, what what bushing are you replacing? There's no
replaceable parts here, Joe. You're either putting a complete slave
on with the bushing and the collar, or you're putting
you're buying a line. Those are the only two parts
I've ever seen available for that. What pushing are you
talking about?
Speaker 8 (30:21):
Well, I got a bushing from the new line that
I'm trying to since since I couldn't get to the
new line popped in place, I thought i'd try that
bushing on that old line. Which the old line's okay,
it just popped. It just keeps popping out.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Are you reusing the Are you reusing the original slave cylinder? Joe?
Speaker 8 (30:43):
Well, yeah, because the otherwise you gotta pull the transmission
and all.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
That out, Joe. If the line, if the line doesn't
go in and clip into places, then the slave cylinder
has an issue that's worn or damaged or missing something
that when it popped the part it fell apart and
you need to put a slave in it. This isn't
complexd this, Joe, This isn't complicated.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
I'm yeah, I know that's it, but I got to
so my question one of my questions though, is this
new line I got is analyzed in black. That end
fitting is black and and I don't know if it
makes a difference, but the other on the slaves Owner's gold,
do they have different ends? You recall, not that I don't.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Work, I've seen I've seen I've seen them made out
of different material things that won't rust get corroded and such.
But you know the line is the same. It's a
it's a crimped ribbed end about three eighths of an echin.
It just pushes into a Chinese handcuff style clip, pops
into the place, locks in the place. You're done. What
I would tell you to do, go down, go down
(31:50):
to your local AutoZone, ask them for a clutch slave
cylinder and look at it. Look at that clutch slave
down there. Make sure that all the pieces that are
on that clutch slave are on your clutch slave. Because
I think you're gonna find something is missing. Go buy
a new clutch slave and pop your new line into it.
It should pop together, or you've got a mismatch of parts.
(32:11):
This is this is There's not a lot here. This
is two and two plus two and two makes four
every time. So there's yeah, there's there's there's there's don't
overthink this. You're overthinking.
Speaker 8 (32:23):
It's pretty it's pretty simple. You know, it just won't
go together. It could be that slave cylinder's little egg
shaped too.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Well, right, If that, if that, if that slave cylinder
is egg shaped at all, If that slave cylinder is
egg shaped at all, it's not going to go together.
This is a very precise fit. I'd be more curious
why that line popped out. And I'm willing to bet
that line popped out because the old slave cylinder is damaged, worn, oblong, rusted,
crouded up or something, because this should have been a
(32:52):
matter of take the new line, pop it in, boom.
You're done. So get down to your local AutoZone look
at a new one. You know why you're buying bushings
and all these other things. I can't understand that. I
have to see pictures, but to me, it sounds like
you've got a problem with the slave and just because
it's in the trans and you don't want to pull it,
you know what, I want to be eighteen again, not
going to happen. Don't attack it from that perspective. I'm
(33:14):
Ron an Ay in the car doctor. I'll be back
right after this. Look back. I'm name of the car doctor.
I thought we'd finished the hour today with a letter
from Joffrey who writes in and this is sort of
(33:35):
because you know, we started the hour with technology and evs.
I think we'll end it here with muscle cars.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Ron.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
I'm a small business owner up here in New York State.
Saturday marks the end of the work week. For me,
listening to this show is the perfect cap to my week.
Along with the technical support you give your listeners, there's
also a philosophical aspect I personally enjoy. Thank you. It
reminds me of reading Zen. In the art of motorcycle maintenance,
my question is this. I have a nineteen sixty six
GTO I purchased back in nineteen ninety three. The original
three D nine grew tired after discovering it was in
(34:01):
a numbers matching block. I made the choice two years ago.
I'd have a new four to sixty eight Pointiact, blueprinted
and built out of a sixty seven to four hundred,
replacing the tripower with a four barrel. I could never
get the four barrel properly tuned, so my mechanic talk
me into converting at the fuel injection. The car now
runs like a watch with zero issues, and the fuel
injection system is incredibly easy to tune. The problem now
is I have this empty feeling that I've done something
(34:21):
wrong in the cosmos of muscle cars. Just curious on
what your thoughts are and making older cars run better
with modern technology and why I have the desire to
put the carbator back on this motor when it has
never performed better. Thanks again for all you do. Jeoffrey. Listen,
I'll tell you what. I think you did the right thing.
It didn't run right.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
You know.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Part of the problem we're up against and making the
older cars un correctly is lack of quality parts. It's
a huge problem. I've got a trailer next to the
shop filled with all the parts that didn't work, and
I'm not sure why I keep them. Maybe I'm hoping
some day to correct them. But yeah, I get it.
I think he did fine. I would probably have done
the same thing. If you really want a numbers matching original,
gto go buy one. Keep that one for what it is.
(34:57):
It's a fun Sunday car and some of the re
cruising with your elbow out the window and the window down,
and a cool summer day. I'm on an ad in
the car. Doctor. I'll see you in the next time.
Good mechanics aren't expensive, They're priceless.
Host
Ron Ananian
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