April 24, 2025 • 9 mins
John Clor of CarsInContext.com looks at the latest tariff situation. Plus, celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Ford Mustang!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's check in with our guy in the
(00:02):
Motor City. He is John Klore of Cars in context
on the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. John,
thanks for the time this morning. Got a lot of
ground to cover. Let's get to it. What's what's happening
in the Motor city. What are automakers saying about the
auto terriffs at the President and he's kind of going
back and forth on this with and maybe he's gonna
pause them, maybe a little bit of relief coming.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
What's the story in your world?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Well, they call it chaos, but I call it comedy.
The bottom line for us is that, you know, we
just want a better deal. That's it. You still want
a better deal on especially on auto parts and tariffs.
So there's a lot of panic. You know, I got
there's twelve states now suiting the White House over tariffs.
So you know, they call it taxation. But these are
(00:46):
the same people that you know, you you were an
economics class and you remember, you know, ninety percent of
the class failing that class. It might as well have
been an advanced calculus because they couldn't figure it out.
And you know, based on our government's track records, they're
not too good at math either, so I'm going to
try something to do. And you know, tariffs, the whole
thing with Canada, I think is the biggest thing. You know,
(01:08):
Canada was just asked to pay for some of the
protection of the border. They refused, so the tariffs got
on them and then they said okay. Then they went
off signed a thirty thirty eight billion dollar trade deal
with China, which is obviously not going to help them.
And it's the China part that people are more worried
about because we source too many things from China, especially
auto parts. So the car companies. The good thing about
(01:31):
the whole tariff thing is the car companies have a
ton of inventory on the ground right now and they're
trying to deal it. So this is actually a good
time to buy a car, are you know, the pre
tariffs sale. There's a lot of showroom traffic because they
want to get into that. You know, if you just
have to have that Mitsubishi or Sue Grew or something
that was not built anywhere near here, this is the
(01:53):
time to get it because there's a ton of inventory.
But once that drives up and if the prices go up,
I'm starting you folks that want a new land road,
we're just gonna have to pay more.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So that's that was my next question is whatever inventory
we've got, and it is a good time right now
to go out and get yourself into a new vehicle.
But maybe this summer, in this fall, when those inventories
are gone, we will see prices and that, you know,
that will then affect the used car market too. I
would imagine if I'm priced out of, you know, a
twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five, you know, and
(02:20):
maybe I'm driving a twenty eighteen, it's starting to get
some miles up on it and I want to get,
you know something, maybe that twenty twenty two or twenty three,
I would imagine the prices for used cars are going
to go up as well.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well. The story there is that the prices right now
for used cars and new cars are astronomically high. They're
the highest on record. And what's happened, and what people
aren't talking about is that everybody's raised prices since COVID.
Because what happened, we want to didn't jump into with
both feet to the ev world, and the Big three
(02:53):
lost billions with a B billions and billions of dollars
in the transition over to ev reduction, and with those losses,
they're not going to eat them. So they're going to
try to make up for those losses by just charging
the regular cars that you and I buy much more.
I mean, you know, some typical Mustang has gone from
a thirty Mustang GT in the last five years, but
(03:14):
from thirty four thousand dollars car to a sixty thousand
dollars car, which is basically now everything's priced out of
everybody's reach. And that's happened to used cars too, so
prices are already sky high. But my feeling is that
this stuff is going to get settled faster than you
this summer. I think people are going to come to
their senses, come to the table. And for me, listen
(03:35):
all of the listeners out there who work on their
own cars. The number one thing, the good thing that
could happen is no more important car parts from China,
because everything I buy that's Chinese, I put on my
car and the two weeks that part fails, and you know,
I want a real car part. You know, you get
it at NAPA or Advance Auto, and they said it's
the Chinese knockoff and now you put on your car
(03:55):
because there's only half the price of an American part.
And what happens is you're doing it again six months later.
So for all those do it yourselfers out there that
work on their cars, you know, not having knockoff parts,
and that's a great thing for Americas. I'll pay more
for something. In the last three.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Weeks, our guy the MotorCity, he is John klorecars in
context dot com. So what's going on with like production lines?
Because under the Biden administration, John, we were told by
twenty thirty, we're all going to be driving evs and
then all the all the automakers in Detroit and elsewhere
switched over their lines or added new lines to accommodate
the production of electric vehicles. Is they thought we're all
(04:33):
going to buy them. Well, it didn't pan out that way.
The EV market kind of bottomed out. Cars were sitting
on lots, the demand went to basically almost zero. And
now I think what I understand is they're flipping these
production lines back to gas powered vehicles.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, a little bit, that's true. But the surprising thing
is right now EV sales are actually up and I
know in some companies it's because of huge incentives right
now to buy one. I mean they're really a deal,
you know what I mean. And you know Tesla dropped
the price of their base car and and so they're
they're actually, you know, a deal right now. You can
(05:11):
get a good deal on an ivy because that's what
they're pushing. But all in all that, you're exactly right.
They had to transition back to cars that people actually
wanted because if they don't do that, then they're going
to be out of business. So that's happened a little bit.
But with the slowdown of car sales that's coming this summer,
I mean we got to the point where you know,
(05:33):
we're flooding the market. There's too much inventory. The prices
are too high, and when you have the prices that high,
people are just going to back off. And it does
drive the price you use cars up. But hey, that
we're driving older cars now like then we ever have.
I mean, the average car is twelve and a half
years old. I've not an old F one fifty that's
got two hundred and seventy thousand miles on it and
(05:55):
I'm not going to give it up. That's the way
it works.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, and your baby in that thing, I would imagine
you are working on it yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You're not putting Chinese parts on that truck.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You're taking care of it, and it's going to last year,
probably for another two hundred thousand miles.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Well. And the other thing too, is you know, as
we get more advanced, as you've seen some stories, I
hope out there the people are saying, hey, you know
what all the electronics in these cars are they really needed?
I mean, I like buttons and knobs instead of touchscreens.
You know, the people and rear and accidents are always
looking down at their screens, if not their phones. And
(06:28):
you know what's wrong with having a lever or a
button or a nob where you just you just reach
over instinctively and change their station or turn on the heat.
You don't have to look at a touchscreen and go
through five or six touches to find where's the fan,
turn the defroster on. You don't need all that stuff.
And by the way, electronics sail. I don't know how's
you're a Sony cassette player working?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, not very well, not very well. I look, I
still look over my shoulder when I'm backing up. I
refuse to use my backup camera. I use my mirrors, John.
And you know, do I need a heat and steering wheel?
Well I don't, but it sure is nice. I gotta
say that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Well, I don't have any respect for anybody that ops
for the find out if you forgot your kid in
the back seat, warned.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Check the back seat for your kid.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You don't know that you had your kid in the
car and you forgot and you just walked in the
store without them. I don't think you deserve to dry.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Hey, let's talk about something that is near and dear
to your heart and the Ford Mustang celebrating its sixtieth
anniversary this year, which is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
What year is your Mustang in the garage?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I've got a nineteen seventy seven Cobra two T top
the three H two C four automatic. It's a little tweaked.
And I have a two tweaki Mustang GT convertible that
has a little tweaks in it, a little bit louder
I think than most.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
But do you have your eye on this? Do you
have your eye on the sixty anniversary Mustang GT?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Well, we just saw three of them. You know, they've
got they have them red, white and blue, and that
car was so pretty. We had an anniversary show. National
Mustang Day was seventeenth of April, and we've had we
had one up there in Tips City, o Higo, we
had one over in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we had
one on Deerborn when I saw that thing. But now
they had a limited run of a Brittany Blue for
(08:12):
the anniversary car. Yeah. But you know those cars are
like seventy sixty thousand dollars, so.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
The starting is sixty five thousand on them. That's just
that's a just a base model.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, you try to convince your wife that you are gonna,
you know, buy that or you forego your retirement and
she's going to have to not get a granted in
the kitchen, you know the way it works.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, I convinced my wife if anything as a chore
these days. But that's a different, different conversation, John.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, it's a it's a great party. We had a
great time. You know, it's amazing. Ten million of these
cars are sold and you know, we we enjoyed that.
And this summer is going to be active. You know,
I'm really been going to town. On my new Mustang
Owners podcast on YouTube and Spotify, they're talking to a
lot of great stories. Everybodys a Mustang story, and you know,
it's just so fun to hear people who get out
(08:58):
have fun with their cars and enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Plug your podcast where people can find it on YouTube
what they called it's.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Called the Mustang Owners Podcast on YouTube and Spotify and
Apple and anywhere. Get your podcast. We've got celebrities, we
got engineers, designers, and great stories from people with crazy
stories about their Mustang. You do events, so yeah, check
it out if if you're into the hobby. And if
you can't check it out, go buy a used one
and drive around and pretend it's you're fifteen again.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, and you actually have ashtrays in the doors like
the good old days.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah. I'd say to put the convertible top down to
you have that hair blown in your wind. But some
of the some of the guys I know, don't have
any hair.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah what hair? Yeah? I maybe to put the ball
cap on backwards and you're ready to rot.
All right, let's check in with our guy in the
(00:02):
Motor City. He is John Klore of Cars in context
on the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. John,
thanks for the time this morning. Got a lot of
ground to cover. Let's get to it. What's what's happening
in the Motor city. What are automakers saying about the
auto terriffs at the President and he's kind of going
back and forth on this with and maybe he's gonna
pause them, maybe a little bit of relief coming.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
What's the story in your world?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Well, they call it chaos, but I call it comedy.
The bottom line for us is that, you know, we
just want a better deal. That's it. You still want
a better deal on especially on auto parts and tariffs.
So there's a lot of panic. You know, I got
there's twelve states now suiting the White House over tariffs.
So you know, they call it taxation. But these are
(00:46):
the same people that you know, you you were an
economics class and you remember, you know, ninety percent of
the class failing that class. It might as well have
been an advanced calculus because they couldn't figure it out.
And you know, based on our government's track records, they're
not too good at math either, so I'm going to
try something to do. And you know, tariffs, the whole
thing with Canada, I think is the biggest thing. You know,
(01:08):
Canada was just asked to pay for some of the
protection of the border. They refused, so the tariffs got
on them and then they said okay. Then they went
off signed a thirty thirty eight billion dollar trade deal
with China, which is obviously not going to help them.
And it's the China part that people are more worried
about because we source too many things from China, especially
auto parts. So the car companies. The good thing about
(01:31):
the whole tariff thing is the car companies have a
ton of inventory on the ground right now and they're
trying to deal it. So this is actually a good
time to buy a car, are you know, the pre
tariffs sale. There's a lot of showroom traffic because they
want to get into that. You know, if you just
have to have that Mitsubishi or Sue Grew or something
that was not built anywhere near here, this is the
(01:53):
time to get it because there's a ton of inventory.
But once that drives up and if the prices go up,
I'm starting you folks that want a new land road,
we're just gonna have to pay more.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
So that's that was my next question is whatever inventory
we've got, and it is a good time right now
to go out and get yourself into a new vehicle.
But maybe this summer, in this fall, when those inventories
are gone, we will see prices and that, you know,
that will then affect the used car market too. I
would imagine if I'm priced out of, you know, a
twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five, you know, and
(02:20):
maybe I'm driving a twenty eighteen, it's starting to get
some miles up on it and I want to get,
you know something, maybe that twenty twenty two or twenty three,
I would imagine the prices for used cars are going
to go up as well.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Well. The story there is that the prices right now
for used cars and new cars are astronomically high. They're
the highest on record. And what's happened, and what people
aren't talking about is that everybody's raised prices since COVID.
Because what happened, we want to didn't jump into with
both feet to the ev world, and the Big three
(02:53):
lost billions with a B billions and billions of dollars
in the transition over to ev reduction, and with those losses,
they're not going to eat them. So they're going to
try to make up for those losses by just charging
the regular cars that you and I buy much more.
I mean, you know, some typical Mustang has gone from
a thirty Mustang GT in the last five years, but
(03:14):
from thirty four thousand dollars car to a sixty thousand
dollars car, which is basically now everything's priced out of
everybody's reach. And that's happened to used cars too, so
prices are already sky high. But my feeling is that
this stuff is going to get settled faster than you
this summer. I think people are going to come to
their senses, come to the table. And for me, listen
(03:35):
all of the listeners out there who work on their
own cars. The number one thing, the good thing that
could happen is no more important car parts from China,
because everything I buy that's Chinese, I put on my
car and the two weeks that part fails, and you know,
I want a real car part. You know, you get
it at NAPA or Advance Auto, and they said it's
the Chinese knockoff and now you put on your car
(03:55):
because there's only half the price of an American part.
And what happens is you're doing it again six months later.
So for all those do it yourselfers out there that
work on their cars, you know, not having knockoff parts,
and that's a great thing for Americas. I'll pay more
for something. In the last three.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Weeks, our guy the MotorCity, he is John klorecars in
context dot com. So what's going on with like production lines?
Because under the Biden administration, John, we were told by
twenty thirty, we're all going to be driving evs and
then all the all the automakers in Detroit and elsewhere
switched over their lines or added new lines to accommodate
the production of electric vehicles. Is they thought we're all
(04:33):
going to buy them. Well, it didn't pan out that way.
The EV market kind of bottomed out. Cars were sitting
on lots, the demand went to basically almost zero. And
now I think what I understand is they're flipping these
production lines back to gas powered vehicles.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, a little bit, that's true. But the surprising thing
is right now EV sales are actually up and I
know in some companies it's because of huge incentives right
now to buy one. I mean they're really a deal,
you know what I mean. And you know Tesla dropped
the price of their base car and and so they're
they're actually, you know, a deal right now. You can
(05:11):
get a good deal on an ivy because that's what
they're pushing. But all in all that, you're exactly right.
They had to transition back to cars that people actually
wanted because if they don't do that, then they're going
to be out of business. So that's happened a little bit.
But with the slowdown of car sales that's coming this summer,
I mean we got to the point where you know,
(05:33):
we're flooding the market. There's too much inventory. The prices
are too high, and when you have the prices that high,
people are just going to back off. And it does
drive the price you use cars up. But hey, that
we're driving older cars now like then we ever have.
I mean, the average car is twelve and a half
years old. I've not an old F one fifty that's
got two hundred and seventy thousand miles on it and
(05:55):
I'm not going to give it up. That's the way
it works.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, and your baby in that thing, I would imagine
you are working on it yourself.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You're not putting Chinese parts on that truck.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You're taking care of it, and it's going to last year,
probably for another two hundred thousand miles.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Well. And the other thing too, is you know, as
we get more advanced, as you've seen some stories, I
hope out there the people are saying, hey, you know
what all the electronics in these cars are they really needed?
I mean, I like buttons and knobs instead of touchscreens.
You know, the people and rear and accidents are always
looking down at their screens, if not their phones. And
(06:28):
you know what's wrong with having a lever or a
button or a nob where you just you just reach
over instinctively and change their station or turn on the heat.
You don't have to look at a touchscreen and go
through five or six touches to find where's the fan,
turn the defroster on. You don't need all that stuff.
And by the way, electronics sail. I don't know how's
you're a Sony cassette player working?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, not very well, not very well. I look, I
still look over my shoulder when I'm backing up. I
refuse to use my backup camera. I use my mirrors, John.
And you know, do I need a heat and steering wheel?
Well I don't, but it sure is nice. I gotta
say that.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Well, I don't have any respect for anybody that ops
for the find out if you forgot your kid in
the back seat, warned.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Check the back seat for your kid.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
You don't know that you had your kid in the
car and you forgot and you just walked in the
store without them. I don't think you deserve to dry.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Hey, let's talk about something that is near and dear
to your heart and the Ford Mustang celebrating its sixtieth
anniversary this year, which is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
What year is your Mustang in the garage?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I've got a nineteen seventy seven Cobra two T top
the three H two C four automatic. It's a little tweaked.
And I have a two tweaki Mustang GT convertible that
has a little tweaks in it, a little bit louder
I think than most.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
But do you have your eye on this? Do you
have your eye on the sixty anniversary Mustang GT?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Well, we just saw three of them. You know, they've
got they have them red, white and blue, and that
car was so pretty. We had an anniversary show. National
Mustang Day was seventeenth of April, and we've had we
had one up there in Tips City, o Higo, we
had one over in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we had
one on Deerborn when I saw that thing. But now
they had a limited run of a Brittany Blue for
(08:12):
the anniversary car. Yeah. But you know those cars are
like seventy sixty thousand dollars, so.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
The starting is sixty five thousand on them. That's just
that's a just a base model.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, you try to convince your wife that you are gonna,
you know, buy that or you forego your retirement and
she's going to have to not get a granted in
the kitchen, you know the way it works.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, I convinced my wife if anything as a chore
these days. But that's a different, different conversation, John.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, it's a it's a great party. We had a
great time. You know, it's amazing. Ten million of these
cars are sold and you know, we we enjoyed that.
And this summer is going to be active. You know,
I'm really been going to town. On my new Mustang
Owners podcast on YouTube and Spotify, they're talking to a
lot of great stories. Everybodys a Mustang story, and you know,
it's just so fun to hear people who get out
(08:58):
have fun with their cars and enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Plug your podcast where people can find it on YouTube
what they called it's.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Called the Mustang Owners Podcast on YouTube and Spotify and
Apple and anywhere. Get your podcast. We've got celebrities, we
got engineers, designers, and great stories from people with crazy
stories about their Mustang. You do events, so yeah, check
it out if if you're into the hobby. And if
you can't check it out, go buy a used one
and drive around and pretend it's you're fifteen again.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, and you actually have ashtrays in the doors like
the good old days.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Yeah. I'd say to put the convertible top down to
you have that hair blown in your wind. But some
of the some of the guys I know, don't have
any hair.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah what hair? Yeah? I maybe to put the ball
cap on backwards and you're ready to rot.
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