April 21, 2015 • 41 mins
It's time for another installment of nuts and bolts, wherein Scott and Ben try (unsuccessfully) to squeeze in all the emails, news stories, stats and anecdotes that haven't made it into earlier episodes. Tune in to see if your letter made it to the air!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff works dot Com. I want
in the car stuff. I'm Scott and I am Ben. Ben.
This is you. I don't know the big news or not,
but I mean we're up to part four Team of
the Nuts and Bolts, all right, Yeah, it feels it
(00:23):
feels pretty good. I don't know if we should even
continue to put you know, part number on this anymore.
Now we're already like working fifteen fifteen never we're at Yeah,
it's uh, it seems like it's too much like maybe
just nuts and bolts, and every time it comes up,
we don't really have to say what addition it is, yeah,
hopefully or a clever name, right, I was thinking exactly Scott.
I was thinking a clever name because one thing that
might interest you guys listening out here, is that you
(00:46):
and I don't really know what the other guy is
going to be bringing to the table when we do this.
This is all all winging it. Yeah, this is winging it.
And uh, maybe we should just name it after what
really interests theme thing that we find during the show.
I don't know, but we'll keep We'll keep this one's fourteen. Yeah,
I think fourteen is fine for this one, but you're right,
(01:07):
and that that might be an interesting twist of the
whole thing if we Nuts and Bolts the Red Bees edition, right, Yeah,
we have one that was like Nuts and Bolts Rides
again or something. I can't remember that, but quick recap
for the newer listeners who are saying, Scott Ben, super
producer Noel Brown, what the heck are you guys talking about?
(01:27):
You're not going to do a show about nuts at Bolts?
Are you know? This is a show about nothing, show
about everything? Maybe everything that's that's a better way to
say it. We're yeah, we are. We are always walking
out of the studio every time we record, saying, ah,
there was this other thing we should have talked about,
or there's this other thing we wanted to do. Why
(01:48):
didn't we get to that listener tweet or listener email.
So eventually, uh, Scott, you and I just made a
show where we cover everything that maybe wasn't enough on
its own for one big episode, or uh, maybe it's
just something interesting that we we thought you would like
to hear about. Two It's a catch all podcasts and
it also gives us a chance to just kind of
(02:09):
write down some notes in front of us and say, oh,
you know what, last week I saw that Cadillac again,
I thought I would mention it on this one because uh,
and you know, just little stuff like that that just
accumulates and accumulates and post it notes all over my
desk and then finally I put them all on one
piece of paper and I bring it in here and
see if there's any kind of interest. And it may
not be, but at least I've got it off my
(02:29):
you know, to do list. Uh so what do you say, Scott,
should we just jump in? Let's jump in and let's
start with a little bit of listener mail if that's okay, Yeah,
just a cue. And you know, I've been trying to
get back to all of our listeners, which this is
good news, by the way. There's a lot of listener
mail pouring in now for car stuff, and and I
try to answer a bunch of it as much as
(02:50):
it as I can. I can't get to everybody. I
always say this every single time. I try to get
back to everybody, but it's just impossible at this point.
So I'm I'm doing my best the ones that I
haven't responded too. I'll try to read here today, but
I don't know if we're gonna get through a lot
of them because I've got a bunch of other stuff
going on. So um, that's my kind of overall disclaimer
for this whole episode. Okay, So someone wrote in recently
(03:13):
and recently I mean December, um about tanks. Oh yeah, yeah,
I remember this one. Eric W wrote in, and you've
got kind of a tank fascination, a military vehicle fascination.
I understand why, but but he wrote in about tanks,
and he says, after the Fastest Electric Car episode that
you guys talked about driving tanks, and he knows a
(03:33):
little bit of something about the M one tank. He says,
the M one tank has a t bar, so you
think of like a motorcycle handlebar with a twist grip accelerator. Um.
It also has an automatic transmission. The driver lays down
like in a lazy boy recliner. That sounds nice, and
the transmission has the usual high, low, neutral and reverse,
but also has a pivot mode where one track rolls
(03:55):
forward the other track rolls in reverse, so that it can,
you know, spin on a dime. It can just pick
alpid rotate um. All right, this is kind of surprising
to me right now. The M one is governed at
forty five miles per hour because we were talking about
the speed, I believe it was. It was the whole
gist of this. We could jump tanks, right, so so, uh,
the M one is governed at forty five miles per
(04:16):
hour right now. But when we first got them in
Germany back in the nineteen eighties, they were governed at
sixty miles per hour. Sixty can you imagine trailing sixty
miles per hour in a tank. I'm going power man
just thinking about it. I feel like I've seen video
of this happening, or film probably this happening. He says.
There was a section on this time, so cool. There
(04:36):
was a section of abandoned autobonn that was in our sector.
It's about fifteen miles long. And yes, we would drive
along the border in this section so that the East
Germans could see how fast our new tank was. It's
kind of a little a little bit of show bunting,
right And again that was Eric W from Uh. I'll
try this name. It's from a city in Georgia, lou
Do we see luis am I saying that right, I'm
(04:58):
not sure I think so he spell it out phonetically
here and I still can't give luluisi. But but thank
you Eric. That's interesting to know. I mean I knew
they were quick, but I didn't know that at one time,
and he could go sixty tanks, man tank, Scott, I, yeah,
thank you, As you know I am, I'm a huge fan.
(05:21):
Did I tell you about how several of the UK
tanks have a built in uh tea kettle? You did? Yeah,
and that is such a strange feature. But what are
you gonna do at tea time if you don't have
that tea kettle? Handy? I mean, just because you're in
a war area doesn't mean you should stop being civilized,
exactly right, Yes, all right, I've got a little piece
(05:41):
of news here if you want to read that one. Yes, okay.
So we've talked before about autonomous cars, and we've got
a lot of episodes on those because there are so
many new developments regarding that, right, big changes, big changes,
big changes, see changes. So, Scott, I don't know if
you have heard this, but the news recently hit in
(06:02):
March that an autonomous car is gonna drive cross country.
I have just heard somebody say two or three sentences
about this and nothing more. So I don't know a
whole lot about it. So it already happened because on
March twenty two, an autonomous car is has set out
from Golden Gate Bridge toward New York. It's going to
be about thirty mile trek. Uh and it's uh, it's
(06:28):
not the first win right. Um, it's the first one
to drive this way. But you know, Audi, Google, Volvo,
they've all been working in this area. Uh. The the
company doing this is Delphi. They build the stuff that
goes into cars, right, and so this, uh, this self
driving car is based on Audi s Q five and
(06:52):
they apparently they chose it because they thought it was cool.
That's that's the question. Audi is big into these into
these autonomous vehicles. They on a lot, they've been doing
a lot of stuff with autonomous vehicles. And they've still
got one of the coolest, creepiest autonomous features ever, which
is the car that we'll find a parking space for
you yea the South Valet, Yeah, and then come get you. Oh.
(07:14):
I love that feature that will come back and pick
you up when you're done shopping. Yeah, and uh so
we just want you to be aware that there may
be a robo road trip going on and they may
have already passed you passing through your area because and
it's kind of happening right now as we're doing this
for this broadcast. So this is interesting. I wonder how
they are handling the licensing because right now, the last
(07:37):
I heard, there were something like there are four states
that allowed autonomous vehicles, you know, driverless, autonomous, completely completely driverless.
I wonder if they are if they have somebody in
the back seat or is it completely autonomous. I just don't.
I don't know. I think even now, for um, even
even for states where that testing is licensed, the deal
(07:58):
is that there has to be a human behind the
wheel just in case something goes wronging, all right, So
I mean we'll have to find more specific details about
how it actually happened or if they're just simply breaking
the rules by going through the Yeah, I mean it's
a pass through, so why not. Yeah. The the idea
(08:19):
here is I think as much of a PR move
as it is an experiment, you know, So I'm interested
to see where it goes. We've talked before about whether
you and I are going to end up being old
Cogers somewhere telling uh, telling it incredulous grandchildren that people
(08:40):
used to drive their own cars. You see that seat
right there. I had to sit in that seat and
it had it had to be that one because there
was a steering wheel there and that looked like this.
I'll draw you a picture. I hope we don't get there, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I hope so too. I hope not. I guess. All right,
So I've got another little bit of listener mail here,
maybe one or two? How about that? Yes, so here's
one from Chris oh and Chris oh right. Senner says,
(09:04):
thanks for the great podcast on eighties accounto cars. Thank you,
Chris um. It brought back some great memories for me.
I bought crx h F new in when I was
in college, my first new car, and the price was
I remember that the passenger side rear view mirror was
an option, and I didn't get a C either. I
didn't get the mirror, didn't get the A. C's strange
(09:27):
to think of those as options, isn't it. I mean,
it really is that so so weird? Al Right? So
he says, I used to get an average of forty
two miles per gallon, and we'll get as highest fifty
eight miles per gallon on the highway. Can you imagine that?
That's crazy? It is, and you know what falls right
in line with the numbers that we were talking about
in that podcast, and and some went way way higher.
(09:48):
I know a lot of people would be shocked at that. Now,
if you haven't listened to our eighties economy car podcast,
take a listen, because the stats on some of these older, smaller,
uh you know, very spartan economy cars, it was just amazing.
It was incredible how far you could go on a
gallon of gas back then. Um, And he said that,
you know, this is kind of funny. He said that
his dad thought it was a mistake because he recalled,
(10:11):
you know, driving a nineteen sixty seven Volkswagen Beetle that
had sixty horse power and this is you know, crs
HF with sixty two horse power. But when he got
in he realized it's not the same car at all.
It is completely different. You know, the torque spects are
probably way different too. And he said that, you know,
aside from being well built, he doesn't remember any rattles
or shakes or or any you know, excessive noise in
(10:33):
the cabin. So it wasn't like it was it was
extremely poorly built or anything. It was. It was a
well built vehicle. It just didn't have the A, B
S and it didn't have the electronics stability control. Yeah, yeah,
side airbags and all that stuff. It was just a lightweight,
good vehicle to drive. So, um, thanks again for writing in, Chris,
(10:54):
and we appreciate it. And uh, we got a lot
of response about that eighties economy car podcast. Yeah, people
with fond memories of those cars and saying things like
and I hear this often from people that had cars
of that era, and I feel the same way. If
I had known then when I sold that car what
I know now, I would love to still be able
(11:14):
to drive my Ford Festivo or my Undo CRX. I
would love to be able to go back and get
that kind of miles. Now now I understand it, it's
probably a one star crash rating and not very safe. However, um,
it was a fun car to drive. It was also
inexpensive to operate and own. You could work on it yourself.
There were so many benefits to those cars. And and
(11:35):
I I got note after note after note from people
saying similar things that, you know, I wish that I
had held onto that car, even if it was until now,
because that's maybe you know that that's there's no way
to do that. I don't think hold onto one of
these for thirty plus years or four years. But um,
you know, if if they had just hold onto another
five or six years, they would have been much happier
(11:57):
than with the car that they ended up with for
the next, you know, span of five or six years.
I'm over explaining this, So let's who's next. Let's see. Oh,
here's a good one. This is one from Let's see.
This one comes from Derek H. And Derek H wrote
in with this is pretty interesting and this may lead
to a future podcast for us. He says, I was
(12:17):
fortunate enough to learn how to drive a stick shift
in the F one fifty, and then I heard about
what is either called semi automatic or automatic stick shift,
and I heard that they were used in the v
W Super Beetle. But I have no idea how they work,
how they or how they came about. But it's also
something is there some kind of advantage to them that
full manual doesn't have now, I was thinking he was
(12:38):
talking about the auto stick feature that we see now
in modern day cars, right kind of, you know, And
we do have something like that, and it's called different
things for different manufacturers, but sport mode or whatever, you know,
you you shifted into a different section of the manual
or rather the automatic selector and you're able to up
shift down shift as you normally would. And usually it's
electronically limited, so you don't destroy your engine on the
(13:00):
highway because it's pretty easy to do because it's just
a bump that causes it to upshift or downshift without
a clutch. And what he is talking about specifically because
he mentions the VW super Bel and I had to
look this up because I was unfamiliar. In the late
nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies, I think it ended.
In the nineteen seventies, Volkswagen used um something they called
automatic stick shift, and it was a very similar to
(13:25):
this system that Chrysler used in the nineties and nineteen
fifties called fluid drive, and it basically uses a m
a fluid coupling in place of like a standard flywheel
on a manual transmission vehicle. So it's kind of this
hybrid between shifting and not having to shift. And I
feel like it warrants its own podcast because there's no
(13:46):
way I'm gonna be able to describe it right here
in this quick little bit here, but we'll need a
full show. But Derek, we will definitely come back to
this topic and uh and cover it because, um, I
think it's fascinating enough, you know that, And maybe we
can even trace the history of this thing, just the
operation of it, because this is exactly what we do.
We like to we like to describe how things work,
and to be able to describe this in a little
more detail would would be fitting for our show. Yeah,
(14:07):
that's a really good idea, Derek, and thank you for
sending it our way. Oh there's one more quick thing
ben from from Derek. Um. He says. This is an
earlier email from I think mid February. Sometimes. He says,
I heard I just heard the podcast about the VW beetle,
and I was wondering about modern beetles. Are they in
any way similar to the original or they just made
to look like it? And that's that's that One's pretty
(14:27):
easy to answer. Uh, they're completely different. There are so different.
The body shape is generally made to look like the
old old vehicle, but they are completely different. That's about it.
That's where it ends right there. They share the same DNA,
but that's it. Yeah, I think it's a lot to
say this. They share the same DNA. It's kind of
like they're they're wearing what looks like the same out Now.
(14:51):
I love the old Beatles, don't get me wrong, but
the new one greatly improved. And and you know when
they first came out from from when they first came
out to the next generation also greatly improved. If you
if you're looking at a brand new one something from
I don't know when the new redesign was, but definitely
look at something there and you'll see if you compare them,
(15:13):
you know, side by side, you will see that nothing
really is the same. Could I could I do something
that's a little bit topical, a little bit pop culture.
Of course, we haven't talked about this on the show, Scott,
and I want your opinion on this. So as you know, listeners,
we are car fans and our personal lives so Scott,
you and I spend time watching stuff like we listened
(15:35):
to car Talk right when it was on, and we're
such huge fans that we did an episode on it.
We also watch top Gear, both of us, uh, and
we have not talked on air or even off air
actually about top Gear and the future of it and
Jeremy Clarkson, that whole thing. Yeah, with the BBC letting
(15:56):
Clarkson go. Right, Yeah, here's what happened. Have you heard
about you know, I have, and I've only I've been
kind of monitoring this from a distance. I don't really
know all the details, but it seems like every day
there's something like, uh, you know Clarkson's you know, expletive
filled rant about the VVC and and at some party
and then fans showing up to protest that he's been
(16:18):
let go and they want him back, they want him reinstated.
And I don't know where everything stands right now as
of today. Well, apparently the whole, the whole brujaha began
because he got in a physical altercation with a producer
right punch the producer who's not pressing charges. But you
know the rest of the team, the other two guys
(16:40):
are not gonna do the show without him. That's what
that's what my money is on, because they're they're sort
of they're like, well, we're a three part team. Sure,
we don't do uh, you have to get entirely new host, right.
And the massive outpouring of support for Jeremy Clarkson from
the fans is is great because he's not a guy
(17:01):
who pulls his punches, you know. No, No, he's a
he's a straight shooter. And the thing is Okay. I've
also read somewhere and this is just one line somewhere
that said, this is maybe not the first time this
has happened either, right, there's there's there may be there
may be some precedent to this situation that that that
led the BBC to act in the way that they did.
And I can't comment on that anyway, because I don't
(17:22):
I don't know how this whole thing is is uh
is stacking up at this point, But it does seem
like without Clarkson, without the other members of the show,
it doesn't seem like it's going to be the same
show at all. You know, they tried it here in
the United States, um, and I don't even know if
that show is still on air or not. I don't
think it's very popular. I think that it initially wasn't
very well received, and uh, and I understand that it's
(17:44):
just not the original, and that's that's what happens when
you try to copy the original. It just is not right. Yeah,
people don't I am a saying top Tier USA is
a knockoff, but people thought about it that way a
lot of its critics. And it's a case of if
it's not broke, why I try to fix it. But
here's here's why I bring all this up because there
(18:07):
was a little bit of news that just came out
today via Gelopnick. Uh the at least that's how I
found out about it. The BBC is gonna work to
make top Gear continue. So in there in their statement here, uh,
they said that, uh, the BBC will work to a
(18:29):
new top Gear TV for but it it's probably gonna
have to be with other presenters unless they get and
unless they somehow uh squash the beef with Clarkson. Alright,
So I said, initially good news, but maybe that's not
good news because that maybe this may be the end
of the top Gear really if it's not well received.
(18:50):
Now you know, it's it's been around a long time,
he wasn't the original presenter, so it is there is
a precedent. It's possible, but we'll just lets us have
to see. I hope you guys like top Gear as
much as I do, and I'd love to hear about
your favorite episodes. Probably my still still my favorite clip
is Jeremy Clarkson in the Mini Cars. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(19:10):
that the world's smallest car. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's a
good one. I also like the one where he was
in the Robin Reliant and continually rolling over because it
was a three wheel design. You remember that. That was hilarious.
That was a great one. I mean, there's so many
good episodes of that. I just I hate to see
it go if it does go, But um, I just
don't know if it would be accepted with a new
(19:31):
set of hosts. I don't think that it would be,
and that that's a shame, because um it's it's a
great program, it really is. I really like it. Well,
let us know what you think, listeners, and uh, if
if you have some ideas for if if you could
picture anyone pastor present at any time in history hosting
top Gear, who would it be? One of my picks
of course is Henry Ford because he would go nuts
(19:54):
on camera. That's an impossible pick, but that would be
cool hypothetically any history. All right, wait what do you
oh man? Okay, well how about this. Let's switch over
to um hell, how about stuff Scott c. Yeah. Yeah,
there's a few here, and you can stop me anytime
you want. But there's a few things, and I've only
got maybe three or four. Um. One thing that I
(20:17):
think I briefly mentioned this at the head was that
it was I recently saw my first Cadillac E L
R on the road. It was right outside of where
we work now in downtown Atlanta, and it was it
was beautiful. It's a beautiful car. It's really really nice.
I mean, it was a black vehicle. It was in
the morning, you know, the sunlight was hitting it just right.
It looked really good. One thing that I noticed about
(20:38):
this car is that it's very small for a Cadillac.
Now it's not small, otherwise, it's just it's just a
small Cadillac. Didn't have the right proportions. I didn't feel
now it's it's gorge The body shape and everything was
really nice. I mean, it just it seemed to look
like a great vehicle. But this this thing, you have
to remember, it's the seventy five dollar car. It's built
(20:58):
on top of what is the v Volt. So that's
why the short wheelbase, and it's about forty dollars more
than the Chevy Volt. But again, you're paying for all
the Cadillac bells and whistles. You're paying for, you know,
I mean, it's a it's a serious upgrade and what
you get compared to the Volt obviously. Yeah, and just
to be absolutely fair about this, that's seventy five thou
(21:20):
dollar price tag doesn't include the different subsidies that Uncle
Sam will give you. Yeah, you're right, and you know
there's some incentives that you can take advantage of to
to drop that price a little bit. But I mean,
still seventy five thousand dollars for what's essentially a Chevy Vault.
I mean, in the past, you have been paying for
not only all the all the bells and whistles that
make it a Cadillac, as far as um interior comfort
(21:41):
and appearance and all that, you know, the badging, I guess,
but you're also getting a Cadillac drive train, which I
know is taken from other vehicles to you know, depending
on uh, you know, what model you've got, if you
got the CTS V or if you had just the
standard Cadillac, or if you had um, you know, the
the A T S or whatever. They had their own
their own set up. But if you're just simply taking
(22:03):
the Cadillac body and laying and on top of the vault, UM,
I don't know, is it worths more? I mean, is
it is it really worth that that price of entry?
I don't know. I mean, it's got a thirty seven
mile range. Um, so it's not fantastic range on it
by any means. If you go all electric, I think
the range is considerably more. Obviously it's like forty if
(22:26):
you go um, yeah, yeah, hybrid. I mean, so it's
you know, you're partially operating on you know, the battery,
partially on the combustion engine. But thirty seven mile range
for all electric. And that's really the big selling point
in this thing, I guess, is that it is a
hybrid and then you can go all electric if you want. Um.
I don't know, I don't know how to feel about
the Cadillac E L R. I mean, it's again, it's
(22:46):
it's a pretty car, but I just don't know if
I'm really behind the idea of it or not. But
is it PfP pretty for the price? Yeah, that's true.
I'm a bit skeptical about the price. I'll admit that, freely,
per slowly right now. If I were to get an
electric car, then this is just me. I wouldn't be
getting that one. What would you pick when you go Tesla? Now,
(23:11):
that's if I could get anything. Well, that's all electric
versus hybrid, it says. The says kind of the safety
net of being a hybrid. Yeah, if it were, if
I had my druthers, if I could get anything, then
I would probably go. Yeah, Tesla, Yeah, for sure, because
we're in the ballpark of the price. I mean, I
know Tesla's a little more than that still, even even
though I think the lower end Tesla, right, I believe
(23:33):
it's another ten thousand more eleven thousand or something like
that in addition to that, But um, yeah, I don't know.
I just I don't think that would be my pick either.
I mean, I love the Cadillac brand and name and
you know everything about it, but I just don't know
if I could do it for something like that all right,
here's another vehicle, ben that. I don't have a whole
lot to say about this thing, but I just wanted
to get it out there that I saw one on
(23:54):
the road because it's it's a pretty remarkable car in person.
I mean it's dramatic. I saw a Corvet zero six
on the road. It was a white one of all colors.
It's a white car. It's not it's not a red
Corvette or anything. It's a white Corvette. And I only
saw it for about maybe two feet on the on
the highway before it exited. But man, did the guy
driving that thing look happy? I mean, he really did.
(24:14):
He had a huge smile on his face. And I
don't know, I don't know if he just picked it
up because there's a there's a big Chevy dealer that's
right off the highway that you know, we were that
I was traveling on, and I could see it coming
from that dealership in him taking home or whatever, you know,
or to another dealership or whatever he's doing. But the
guy had a huge grin on his face. And I
can understand why. It's a beautiful car. I mean, to
(24:36):
see it in person, it's it's striking. I mean, it's
just it's it stands out even against other Corvette. I
mean it just looks that much dramatically different. It's really
really cool package. Yeah, it's weird when you when you
think about it. I'm glad we're doing stuff Scott Sea's
because now that we've moved to a different place with
a great view of the main drag down here, I
(24:57):
anticipate we're going to be seeing a lot of stuff.
But gotta be honest, man, one thing I miss about
where we used to work is that we could walk
out on our lunch break and I knew I would
see three exotics if I just walked like for twenty minutes. Yeah,
that that Buckhead region of Atlanta is just rich with
with exotics and foreign vehicles that you just don't see
(25:18):
anywhere else. And it's so strange the way that that
that happened right there in that four or five miles
of road, the Lambos alone, man, and it truly was
like it really it's so strange. But I mean at
lunchtime you would see four or five hyper exotic cars
out there, I mean just going to lunch, and then
the Oscar Ween or Oscar myro Winermobile cruises through. Yeah,
(25:39):
and don't get me wrong, there's a lot of everything
out there. But but what other places? I mean, Okay,
maybe Miami. You know, if you're in downtown Miami, you
might see something like they're similar scene, I guess, but
it's it's a really it's it's a strange car scene
there in Buckhead, Atlanta. I might go up there again
just a car watch because it made me feel like
(26:00):
I always in Grand Theft Auto five And don't worry, guys,
that didn't try to steal a car. But but what
else have you seen? Okay, let's see. Um Okay, here's
one that's just I don't even know if this is
automotive related. And maybe it's a maybe it's the topic
that you and I can work into a into a show,
all right, so loosely automotive related. UM. I was driving
(26:20):
through Indiana recently. Um had a long trip and maybe
I'll talk about this in a little while, But um,
I was in northern Indiana and I saw a particular motel,
you know, like not a hotel, but a motel that
can you would drive right up to the dorm park
and you know, you get the key and go in
kind of like the like the Bates Motel or something, right,
and uh, in this case, very much like that. This
(26:41):
was this one was called the Wolf, It's called Wolf's
motor In and it's in northern Indiana and it was
run down, it was it was abandoned. Uh, you know,
the sign was falling down. You know, there's weeds in
the parking lot and everything. And it did look a
lot like the Bates Motel to me. I mean, it
was that kind of look, right. But I was thinking,
I was just wondering that we don't we don't really
see a whole lot of those functioning anymore. I mean,
(27:02):
I know there's a few here and there, but that
used to be the thing, you know, that you would
pull into these these motor ins or and I know
that's a brand name, I think, motor In. But um,
it seems like there might be some type of car
culture topic that ties into this that, um, you know,
the death of the motor ins or the death of
the motels. But but picture exactly like you know, something
(27:24):
exactly like the Bates Motel, and you know that there's
hundreds of those that are abandoned all across the United
States particularly, and and again exactly like what happened on
in the movie Psycho. The highway bypasses that area and
that business just drives up, and that's exactly what happened.
You know, the main the main roads are bypassed. You know,
what was the main road, a two lane highway for
(27:47):
a super you know, super highway and interstate system and
uh and those just kind of dried up and died
and went away. But the buildings remain, you know, the
signs remain from the nineteen fifties. It was part of
car culture and in a way, I don't know if
we can do that something with that or not, but
it's still cool to look at part of the part
of the road trip culture. They're also you know, people
(28:08):
call them tourist traps. Uh. There there's still a lot
of those. I'll tell you that. When I go back
up to Appalachia and that in that area, you see
a lot of that stuff. And and there are quite
a few that survive due to tourism, you know. But
with the rise of the big business hotels and the
(28:32):
like express versions they've made of themselves, it's pretty tough
for local business to compete with that kind of economy
of scale. These are places that you know, the house
right next to it is the people that own it,
right and if they're going to if they're going to renovate,
which most of them haven't been renovated in thirty years,
forty years or whatever, because the ones that you do
see are pretty run down. I know there's examples out there,
(28:54):
they're nice, but most of them are run down. If
they're going to renovate, they've got to buy twenty beds,
they've gotta buy twenty sets a dressers and nightstands and
stuff like that, and they're just not gonna be able
to do that to keep up with the big brands.
And that's what happened. But it's it's fascinating to me
to see these places and to think about what happened
at those places as far as you know, like what
kind of cars would you see there in the nineteen
(29:15):
forties and the parking lot? How just think about like
old photographs that you've seen of you know, those those
motels with just a line of cars from the nineties
and fifties or even earlier, because you know people driving
older rex at that time, right from the nineties. Um,
so there's some fascinating car history type stuff there. I
don't know, it's a loose association, I get it. But
(29:37):
but maybe there's something to do there, you know, for
for car stuff an upcoming episode. Yeah, let us because
I'd love to do something on the rise and fall
of motor lodges. And maybe, like Mark Twain said, maybe
the reports of their death have been exaggerated. Now, maybe
that would be great. Maybe. Uh, let's see, I've got well,
let's see, you got something else you saw? Okay, how
about one more quick things and I won't spend too
(29:58):
much time again on that aime trip. I was driving
through and this is in the let's see, I guess
we've been early March and Kentucky, of all places that
just had a huge snowstorm. It was almost like when
you first went across the border, it was like right
at the border, they had a lot of snow and
it was right on the side of the road. It
had just been cleared from the night before. And for
for Kentucky, it's a lot of snow, not anywhere north
(30:19):
of that, but for Kentucky it was. And um, coming back,
you know that this happened when I was there, and
it was only like a three day trip. So when
I came back, Um, I saw on the side of
the road and there were a lot of cars that
had spun off and the other fifty feet off the road,
sixty ft off the road, and they're backwards and you know,
facing straight up in a ditch and that kind of thing.
Because as Kentucky, they don't really know how to drive
(30:39):
in the snow. I get it. I understand that the
terrains not there, and the you know, the equipment and
everything isn't available. There was one car in particular that
I saw and I passed it going fast on the highway,
so I didn't get a good, real good look at it.
This is so weird. Most people when they pull off
to the side, they pull way off to the side
right and the cars relatively safe. It gets buried from
the snow plows or what ever. I understand that, and
(31:00):
it's piled up to the door. Well, this car was,
I mean right on the road on the on the
expressway like interstate, and it was right on the side,
so that almost like the the you know, the driver's
side mirror was in the lane of traffic for the
slow lane. It was that close. And now there's the
snow all around it. But what was unusual about this
one car? Now, it's a kind of like it was
(31:21):
almost like an economy car, and it wasn't real badly
like smashed or anything, but the entire left side of
the car was missing every panel, what every panel? And
I thought, this is weird, And I thought, how is you?
I thought the same thing, How is that possible? I
think a snow plow probably clipped this thing after the
driver had pulled over the side of the road, so
they haven't come back yet to see it because there's
(31:43):
snow still piled around it. But the panels, like the
the rear quarter panel, the driver's door, in the front panel,
the front fender, we're all missing. And you could see,
like you know that that crosswork of braces, uh, that's
just below the panel, just below the panel. Itself crazy,
but how weird that it would be stripped away like
that and and cleanly, and without you know, the car
(32:05):
being thrown off to the side of the road or
anything like that. It was like it just barely nipped
it enough to pull those off. And I don't even
know how that's possible, Ben, I don't was the car
driven there like that? I don't. I don't think that
it was. Because of where it was positioned and how
it looked. I thought, this, this car has just been
stripped like a snowplot. Must have just ripped the whole
side off the cars. It was a weird thing. Here's
(32:29):
how here's how weird it was. I I truly thought
about going to the next exit, coming back, parking somewhere
behind it and taking a photograph of it. But there's
no way because of where it was positioned. I would
have had to have stood on the highway to take
the photo, and there's no way I'm going to do that.
But it was that bizarre, like it was so strange
to me to see that. I've never seen anything quite
like that and so cleanly removed. So yeah, there's a
(32:51):
mystery there. Yeah, I mean I almost feel like it was,
you know, left there that way, but the but the
where it was, in the appearance of it, it made
it look like it had been a horrific accident. I
can just imagine what an owner would think if they
came back and found that vehicle like that. Well, now
that we're talking about things that are a little bit
more mysterious or maybe even creepy. I'd like to tell
our listeners about something you already know about because I
(33:13):
mentioned it to you. I don't think it's enough for
a full podcast, so let's spend some time talking about it. Now.
Rental cars. We've all had experience with rental cars, and
you know, if you mind your pie's and queues, if
you're very careful about what you agreed to in the beginning,
it can be a great deal. But there's a lot
of fine print, and there's so much fine print. Yes,
(33:35):
there's a dictionary's worth of fine print, and it's becoming
more complicated. Another story that recently hit the news as
of March of this year, I can tell you almost
exactly when. It's probably March. I'm gonna guess somewhere in
there right around. Yeah, good guess. Uh so you know
what we're talking about, right? Oh? Yes, I do so, guys. Hurts,
(34:00):
one of the largest names in uh in car rental business,
has now decided that they are going to install cameras
but wait also microphones in cars as part of their
GPS navigation system. Boy. Yeah, but before you worry about
Big Brother, don't worry about Hurts. Because they said they're
(34:21):
not gonna watch you. Specifically, what they said is that
they don't have the capability installed right now to watch you.
Sure they don't, Yeah right, I know this is bringing
out my tinfoil hat. Well, okay, here's the thing. We've
all seen the dash cam footage right of you know,
from the crazy stuff that happens in Russia to right
here in the United States or wherever Australia, it doesn't matter,
it happens everywhere. But the dash cams have a microphone
(34:44):
built in, so it's also recording recording the cockpit audio
that you know, when you're driving the vehicle that I
guess the cabin audio. It's cabin the cabin audio plus video,
and I bet it so. I mean, it's probably just
a way to you know, the c y a move
on their part, uh, to say, well, if anything does
happen in the rental car, um, we've we've got video proof.
(35:05):
Hang on though, uh this uh hang on. The cameras
are driver facing what their driver facing, So they're not
even facing out the front window where I would think
that they would be like any other dash cam would be, right,
These are facing at the driver and recording audio of
what the drivers doing. Yeah, video and audio. These are
(35:25):
in some of the These are in some of the cars.
Hurts apparently told Fusion that around one out of every
eight cars had its camera installed. But don't worry, they're
not actually going to use them. Why would they ever
need to watch what the driver is doing? I don't understand.
There has to be some precedent for this. What I mean,
I mean maybe you don't even know the answer to this.
(35:47):
I don't. I have not heard this anywhere. But what
is the reason that they need to watch the driver
while they're they're driving their rental car? All right, I've
got you, you're ready. Yeah. This statement comes to us
via c Net. Hurt spokeswoman Evelyn in Paratrist says the
cameras and Never Lost six units aren't functional and cannot
(36:07):
be turned on under any circumstances by either renters or
by the company. When we chose the new hardware device
for Never Lost six, that's their proprietary GPS, we included
a camera option in the event that a video conferencing
function might be a useful future application that renters would welcome. Okay,
so how many times have we heard though that somebody
can hack in and they can, they can watch you
(36:29):
from your own laptop via that little camera that's there.
How long before you think that someone well, you know what,
doesn't even have to be someone hacking in this could
just be somebody in the Hurts company that decides I'm
gonna switch that camera on while that person's renting to
see what they're up to, not not necessarily thinking that
they're going to catch them doing anything that they shouldn't
be doing, just just out of curiosity, like let's see
(36:50):
what this let's see what this person is doing where
they are. She continues the spokesperson to say, we have
always intended that the video conferencing function our rental kiosk,
which have video conferencing capability, could only be activated by
renters at their sole discretion if, for example, they were
lost in an accident or their vehicle broke down, they
preferred to interact with a Hurts employee through live video chat. Okay, big,
(37:14):
big difference here is that you're standing, you're stepping up
to a video kiosk knowing that you were filling out
a form here. You know you're there to do a
certain task. Driving a car, you think, you think when
you close that door and you drive away from the
dealership or the rental facility. You think you're on your own.
You think that you're alone in that car. Now whatether
(37:34):
that's you know, somebody who's uh singing along, you know,
to the radio, and you know they would otherwise be
embarrassed if somebody were to see them doing that. I
don't know, picking your nose, I don't know, but but
I bet they're they're trying to catch people that maybe
are drinking well driving, texting well driving, um by somebody
steals a car, you violating. Oh you know what, that's okay,
(37:55):
maybe that's a good use for it. But but that's
a slippery slope to say, like that's a good use
for it, let's leave it in, because there's all these
other reasons that they shouldn't leave it in. So so
I'm not going to agree to that either. But this
is a huge invasion of privacy. I mean, it really is.
But but if you're violent, they're they're going to use
it to catch you violating parts of that contract you
(38:16):
may not even know were there in the fine fine lines.
So let's say that you do stop at a stop
light and you feel it's safe to text somebody. Now,
I know you shouldn't be doing, but let's say that
you do that, and in there you had initialed something
that said that I agree to pay a fine of
X number of dollars if if I'm caught violating any
of these conditions. And that's one of those things, or
what if, um, what what if you're eating? What if
(38:39):
you're people smoking? Distracted driving? I distracted driving could be
something that they have on a checklist, like I agreed
to not not engage in distracted driving. But you know,
sipping a soda that you got at a at a
gas station a mile down the road, and they happen
to flip on the camera and see you doing that,
They'll take a still of that, and then when you
return the vehicles, say, by the way, we're charying fifty
(39:00):
extra dollars. And here's the reason. Here's a photo of
you with your big gulp from the racetrack gas station. So,
just on a personal note, Uh, some of our listeners
know that one of the shows I do is about
this kind of stuff, right, and you've actually appeared on
that show before. Yeah, but the with that in mind,
(39:24):
I understand that I would probably have a clear personal
bias against this stuff. But this is all kinds of
unsafe to me in term for for consumers. Uh. And
this is nothing against hurts because the reasons that they're
giving are valid. They're protecting their property. Right. You don't
own the car. You rent a car as part of
(39:45):
a service. I I wonder if other rental companies will
start doing this or if this is gonna be something that,
um like, what's another company like if Avis would start
doing this, because if Avis doesn't, then they might had
a lot more people coming in just with these privacy concerns.
And and I want to hear what you think about this,
two listeners? Is this right wrong? Where where does this fall? Yeah?
(40:10):
This is a strange one. And I hope I don't
sound too conspiracy theory you know, you know out there
or anything, but but honestly, like it just seems like
a huge violation of your privacy. It really does. And
I don't even know if they they are up front
with the customers when you check out a car, I
don't I don't know all the details of how the
the process goes. If they say, you know, by the way,
this vehicle is equipped with a brand new, never lost system,
(40:31):
and uh, there is a camera that faces towards you.
We made choose to switch that on at some point, right, Yeah,
they said they don't have the bandwidth now, but I
don't know. I'd be I'd be interested to see how
this develops. And if you've had experience with this, let
us know what it looks like. I hate to say it, man,
but we're running a little low on time. Yeah we are.
We run a little bit long time, so stay tuned
(40:53):
for our next episode. In the meantime. If you enjoy
Nuts and Bolts this time around, then oh buddy, we
thirteam more that you could check out, so please give
it a listen. You can find us at Car Stuff
Show dot com. We're on Twitter, we're on Facebook. We'd
like to hear from you on both of those where
we are Car Stuff hs W and if you have
(41:13):
something that we should read on the air, then let
us know. Oh, by the way, thanks to Eric, Chris
and Derek for the excellent emails. And if you want
to take a page out of their book and suggest
a topic for us, tell us a story, or tell
us what you think about those creepy hurts cameras, then
we're all ears. You can email us at our stuff
at how stuff works dot com. For more on this
(41:38):
and thousands of other topics, is how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think, send an email to
podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff works dot Com. I want
in the car stuff. I'm Scott and I am Ben. Ben.
This is you. I don't know the big news or not,
but I mean we're up to part four Team of
the Nuts and Bolts, all right, Yeah, it feels it
(00:23):
feels pretty good. I don't know if we should even
continue to put you know, part number on this anymore.
Now we're already like working fifteen fifteen never we're at Yeah,
it's uh, it seems like it's too much like maybe
just nuts and bolts, and every time it comes up,
we don't really have to say what addition it is, yeah,
hopefully or a clever name, right, I was thinking exactly Scott.
I was thinking a clever name because one thing that
might interest you guys listening out here, is that you
(00:46):
and I don't really know what the other guy is
going to be bringing to the table when we do this.
This is all all winging it. Yeah, this is winging it.
And uh, maybe we should just name it after what
really interests theme thing that we find during the show.
I don't know, but we'll keep We'll keep this one's fourteen. Yeah,
I think fourteen is fine for this one, but you're right,
(01:07):
and that that might be an interesting twist of the
whole thing if we Nuts and Bolts the Red Bees edition, right, Yeah,
we have one that was like Nuts and Bolts Rides
again or something. I can't remember that, but quick recap
for the newer listeners who are saying, Scott Ben, super
producer Noel Brown, what the heck are you guys talking about?
(01:27):
You're not going to do a show about nuts at Bolts?
Are you know? This is a show about nothing, show
about everything? Maybe everything that's that's a better way to
say it. We're yeah, we are. We are always walking
out of the studio every time we record, saying, ah,
there was this other thing we should have talked about,
or there's this other thing we wanted to do. Why
(01:48):
didn't we get to that listener tweet or listener email.
So eventually, uh, Scott, you and I just made a
show where we cover everything that maybe wasn't enough on
its own for one big episode, or uh, maybe it's
just something interesting that we we thought you would like
to hear about. Two It's a catch all podcasts and
it also gives us a chance to just kind of
(02:09):
write down some notes in front of us and say, oh,
you know what, last week I saw that Cadillac again,
I thought I would mention it on this one because uh,
and you know, just little stuff like that that just
accumulates and accumulates and post it notes all over my
desk and then finally I put them all on one
piece of paper and I bring it in here and
see if there's any kind of interest. And it may
not be, but at least I've got it off my
(02:29):
you know, to do list. Uh so what do you say, Scott,
should we just jump in? Let's jump in and let's
start with a little bit of listener mail if that's okay, Yeah,
just a cue. And you know, I've been trying to
get back to all of our listeners, which this is
good news, by the way. There's a lot of listener
mail pouring in now for car stuff, and and I
try to answer a bunch of it as much as
(02:50):
it as I can. I can't get to everybody. I
always say this every single time. I try to get
back to everybody, but it's just impossible at this point.
So I'm I'm doing my best the ones that I
haven't responded too. I'll try to read here today, but
I don't know if we're gonna get through a lot
of them because I've got a bunch of other stuff
going on. So um, that's my kind of overall disclaimer
for this whole episode. Okay, So someone wrote in recently
(03:13):
and recently I mean December, um about tanks. Oh yeah, yeah,
I remember this one. Eric W wrote in, and you've
got kind of a tank fascination, a military vehicle fascination.
I understand why, but but he wrote in about tanks,
and he says, after the Fastest Electric Car episode that
you guys talked about driving tanks, and he knows a
(03:33):
little bit of something about the M one tank. He says,
the M one tank has a t bar, so you
think of like a motorcycle handlebar with a twist grip accelerator. Um.
It also has an automatic transmission. The driver lays down
like in a lazy boy recliner. That sounds nice, and
the transmission has the usual high, low, neutral and reverse,
but also has a pivot mode where one track rolls
(03:55):
forward the other track rolls in reverse, so that it can,
you know, spin on a dime. It can just pick
alpid rotate um. All right, this is kind of surprising
to me right now. The M one is governed at
forty five miles per hour because we were talking about
the speed, I believe it was. It was the whole
gist of this. We could jump tanks, right, so so, uh,
the M one is governed at forty five miles per
(04:16):
hour right now. But when we first got them in
Germany back in the nineteen eighties, they were governed at
sixty miles per hour. Sixty can you imagine trailing sixty
miles per hour in a tank. I'm going power man
just thinking about it. I feel like I've seen video
of this happening, or film probably this happening. He says.
There was a section on this time, so cool. There
(04:36):
was a section of abandoned autobonn that was in our sector.
It's about fifteen miles long. And yes, we would drive
along the border in this section so that the East
Germans could see how fast our new tank was. It's
kind of a little a little bit of show bunting,
right And again that was Eric W from Uh. I'll
try this name. It's from a city in Georgia, lou
Do we see luis am I saying that right, I'm
(04:58):
not sure I think so he spell it out phonetically
here and I still can't give luluisi. But but thank
you Eric. That's interesting to know. I mean I knew
they were quick, but I didn't know that at one time,
and he could go sixty tanks, man tank, Scott, I, yeah,
thank you, As you know I am, I'm a huge fan.
(05:21):
Did I tell you about how several of the UK
tanks have a built in uh tea kettle? You did? Yeah,
and that is such a strange feature. But what are
you gonna do at tea time if you don't have
that tea kettle? Handy? I mean, just because you're in
a war area doesn't mean you should stop being civilized,
exactly right, Yes, all right, I've got a little piece
(05:41):
of news here if you want to read that one. Yes, okay.
So we've talked before about autonomous cars, and we've got
a lot of episodes on those because there are so
many new developments regarding that, right, big changes, big changes,
big changes, see changes. So, Scott, I don't know if
you have heard this, but the news recently hit in
(06:02):
March that an autonomous car is gonna drive cross country.
I have just heard somebody say two or three sentences
about this and nothing more. So I don't know a
whole lot about it. So it already happened because on
March twenty two, an autonomous car is has set out
from Golden Gate Bridge toward New York. It's going to
be about thirty mile trek. Uh and it's uh, it's
(06:28):
not the first win right. Um, it's the first one
to drive this way. But you know, Audi, Google, Volvo,
they've all been working in this area. Uh. The the
company doing this is Delphi. They build the stuff that
goes into cars, right, and so this, uh, this self
driving car is based on Audi s Q five and
(06:52):
they apparently they chose it because they thought it was cool.
That's that's the question. Audi is big into these into
these autonomous vehicles. They on a lot, they've been doing
a lot of stuff with autonomous vehicles. And they've still
got one of the coolest, creepiest autonomous features ever, which
is the car that we'll find a parking space for
you yea the South Valet, Yeah, and then come get you. Oh.
(07:14):
I love that feature that will come back and pick
you up when you're done shopping. Yeah, and uh so
we just want you to be aware that there may
be a robo road trip going on and they may
have already passed you passing through your area because and
it's kind of happening right now as we're doing this
for this broadcast. So this is interesting. I wonder how
they are handling the licensing because right now, the last
(07:37):
I heard, there were something like there are four states
that allowed autonomous vehicles, you know, driverless, autonomous, completely completely driverless.
I wonder if they are if they have somebody in
the back seat or is it completely autonomous. I just don't.
I don't know. I think even now, for um, even
even for states where that testing is licensed, the deal
(07:58):
is that there has to be a human behind the
wheel just in case something goes wronging, all right, So
I mean we'll have to find more specific details about
how it actually happened or if they're just simply breaking
the rules by going through the Yeah, I mean it's
a pass through, so why not. Yeah. The the idea
(08:19):
here is I think as much of a PR move
as it is an experiment, you know, So I'm interested
to see where it goes. We've talked before about whether
you and I are going to end up being old
Cogers somewhere telling uh, telling it incredulous grandchildren that people
(08:40):
used to drive their own cars. You see that seat
right there. I had to sit in that seat and
it had it had to be that one because there
was a steering wheel there and that looked like this.
I'll draw you a picture. I hope we don't get there, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I hope so too. I hope not. I guess. All right,
So I've got another little bit of listener mail here,
maybe one or two? How about that? Yes, so here's
one from Chris oh and Chris oh right. Senner says,
(09:04):
thanks for the great podcast on eighties accounto cars. Thank you,
Chris um. It brought back some great memories for me.
I bought crx h F new in when I was
in college, my first new car, and the price was
I remember that the passenger side rear view mirror was
an option, and I didn't get a C either. I
didn't get the mirror, didn't get the A. C's strange
(09:27):
to think of those as options, isn't it. I mean,
it really is that so so weird? Al Right? So
he says, I used to get an average of forty
two miles per gallon, and we'll get as highest fifty
eight miles per gallon on the highway. Can you imagine that?
That's crazy? It is, and you know what falls right
in line with the numbers that we were talking about
in that podcast, and and some went way way higher.
(09:48):
I know a lot of people would be shocked at that. Now,
if you haven't listened to our eighties economy car podcast,
take a listen, because the stats on some of these older, smaller,
uh you know, very spartan economy cars, it was just amazing.
It was incredible how far you could go on a
gallon of gas back then. Um, And he said that,
you know, this is kind of funny. He said that
his dad thought it was a mistake because he recalled,
(10:11):
you know, driving a nineteen sixty seven Volkswagen Beetle that
had sixty horse power and this is you know, crs
HF with sixty two horse power. But when he got
in he realized it's not the same car at all.
It is completely different. You know, the torque spects are
probably way different too. And he said that, you know,
aside from being well built, he doesn't remember any rattles
or shakes or or any you know, excessive noise in
(10:33):
the cabin. So it wasn't like it was it was
extremely poorly built or anything. It was. It was a
well built vehicle. It just didn't have the A, B
S and it didn't have the electronics stability control. Yeah, yeah,
side airbags and all that stuff. It was just a lightweight,
good vehicle to drive. So, um, thanks again for writing in, Chris,
(10:54):
and we appreciate it. And uh, we got a lot
of response about that eighties economy car podcast. Yeah, people
with fond memories of those cars and saying things like
and I hear this often from people that had cars
of that era, and I feel the same way. If
I had known then when I sold that car what
I know now, I would love to still be able
(11:14):
to drive my Ford Festivo or my Undo CRX. I
would love to be able to go back and get
that kind of miles. Now now I understand it, it's
probably a one star crash rating and not very safe. However, um,
it was a fun car to drive. It was also
inexpensive to operate and own. You could work on it yourself.
There were so many benefits to those cars. And and
(11:35):
I I got note after note after note from people
saying similar things that, you know, I wish that I
had held onto that car, even if it was until now,
because that's maybe you know that that's there's no way
to do that. I don't think hold onto one of
these for thirty plus years or four years. But um,
you know, if if they had just hold onto another
five or six years, they would have been much happier
(11:57):
than with the car that they ended up with for
the next, you know, span of five or six years.
I'm over explaining this, So let's who's next. Let's see. Oh,
here's a good one. This is one from Let's see.
This one comes from Derek H. And Derek H wrote
in with this is pretty interesting and this may lead
to a future podcast for us. He says, I was
(12:17):
fortunate enough to learn how to drive a stick shift
in the F one fifty, and then I heard about
what is either called semi automatic or automatic stick shift,
and I heard that they were used in the v
W Super Beetle. But I have no idea how they work,
how they or how they came about. But it's also
something is there some kind of advantage to them that
full manual doesn't have now, I was thinking he was
(12:38):
talking about the auto stick feature that we see now
in modern day cars, right kind of, you know, And
we do have something like that, and it's called different
things for different manufacturers, but sport mode or whatever, you know,
you you shifted into a different section of the manual
or rather the automatic selector and you're able to up
shift down shift as you normally would. And usually it's
electronically limited, so you don't destroy your engine on the
(13:00):
highway because it's pretty easy to do because it's just
a bump that causes it to upshift or downshift without
a clutch. And what he is talking about specifically because
he mentions the VW super Bel and I had to
look this up because I was unfamiliar. In the late
nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies, I think it ended.
In the nineteen seventies, Volkswagen used um something they called
automatic stick shift, and it was a very similar to
(13:25):
this system that Chrysler used in the nineties and nineteen
fifties called fluid drive, and it basically uses a m
a fluid coupling in place of like a standard flywheel
on a manual transmission vehicle. So it's kind of this
hybrid between shifting and not having to shift. And I
feel like it warrants its own podcast because there's no
(13:46):
way I'm gonna be able to describe it right here
in this quick little bit here, but we'll need a
full show. But Derek, we will definitely come back to
this topic and uh and cover it because, um, I
think it's fascinating enough, you know that, And maybe we
can even trace the history of this thing, just the
operation of it, because this is exactly what we do.
We like to we like to describe how things work,
and to be able to describe this in a little
more detail would would be fitting for our show. Yeah,
(14:07):
that's a really good idea, Derek, and thank you for
sending it our way. Oh there's one more quick thing
ben from from Derek. Um. He says. This is an
earlier email from I think mid February. Sometimes. He says,
I heard I just heard the podcast about the VW beetle,
and I was wondering about modern beetles. Are they in
any way similar to the original or they just made
to look like it? And that's that's that One's pretty
(14:27):
easy to answer. Uh, they're completely different. There are so different.
The body shape is generally made to look like the
old old vehicle, but they are completely different. That's about it.
That's where it ends right there. They share the same DNA,
but that's it. Yeah, I think it's a lot to
say this. They share the same DNA. It's kind of
like they're they're wearing what looks like the same out Now.
(14:51):
I love the old Beatles, don't get me wrong, but
the new one greatly improved. And and you know when
they first came out from from when they first came
out to the next generation also greatly improved. If you
if you're looking at a brand new one something from
I don't know when the new redesign was, but definitely
look at something there and you'll see if you compare them,
(15:13):
you know, side by side, you will see that nothing
really is the same. Could I could I do something
that's a little bit topical, a little bit pop culture.
Of course, we haven't talked about this on the show, Scott,
and I want your opinion on this. So as you know, listeners,
we are car fans and our personal lives so Scott,
you and I spend time watching stuff like we listened
(15:35):
to car Talk right when it was on, and we're
such huge fans that we did an episode on it.
We also watch top Gear, both of us, uh, and
we have not talked on air or even off air
actually about top Gear and the future of it and
Jeremy Clarkson, that whole thing. Yeah, with the BBC letting
(15:56):
Clarkson go. Right, Yeah, here's what happened. Have you heard
about you know, I have, and I've only I've been
kind of monitoring this from a distance. I don't really
know all the details, but it seems like every day
there's something like, uh, you know Clarkson's you know, expletive
filled rant about the VVC and and at some party
and then fans showing up to protest that he's been
(16:18):
let go and they want him back, they want him reinstated.
And I don't know where everything stands right now as
of today. Well, apparently the whole, the whole brujaha began
because he got in a physical altercation with a producer
right punch the producer who's not pressing charges. But you
know the rest of the team, the other two guys
(16:40):
are not gonna do the show without him. That's what
that's what my money is on, because they're they're sort
of they're like, well, we're a three part team. Sure,
we don't do uh, you have to get entirely new host, right.
And the massive outpouring of support for Jeremy Clarkson from
the fans is is great because he's not a guy
(17:01):
who pulls his punches, you know. No, No, he's a
he's a straight shooter. And the thing is Okay. I've
also read somewhere and this is just one line somewhere
that said, this is maybe not the first time this
has happened either, right, there's there's there may be there
may be some precedent to this situation that that that
led the BBC to act in the way that they did.
And I can't comment on that anyway, because I don't
(17:22):
I don't know how this whole thing is is uh
is stacking up at this point, But it does seem
like without Clarkson, without the other members of the show,
it doesn't seem like it's going to be the same
show at all. You know, they tried it here in
the United States, um, and I don't even know if
that show is still on air or not. I don't
think it's very popular. I think that it initially wasn't
very well received, and uh, and I understand that it's
(17:44):
just not the original, and that's that's what happens when
you try to copy the original. It just is not right. Yeah,
people don't I am a saying top Tier USA is
a knockoff, but people thought about it that way a
lot of its critics. And it's a case of if
it's not broke, why I try to fix it. But
here's here's why I bring all this up because there
(18:07):
was a little bit of news that just came out
today via Gelopnick. Uh the at least that's how I
found out about it. The BBC is gonna work to
make top Gear continue. So in there in their statement here, uh,
they said that, uh, the BBC will work to a
(18:29):
new top Gear TV for but it it's probably gonna
have to be with other presenters unless they get and
unless they somehow uh squash the beef with Clarkson. Alright,
So I said, initially good news, but maybe that's not
good news because that maybe this may be the end
of the top Gear really if it's not well received.
(18:50):
Now you know, it's it's been around a long time,
he wasn't the original presenter, so it is there is
a precedent. It's possible, but we'll just lets us have
to see. I hope you guys like top Gear as
much as I do, and I'd love to hear about
your favorite episodes. Probably my still still my favorite clip
is Jeremy Clarkson in the Mini Cars. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(19:10):
that the world's smallest car. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's a
good one. I also like the one where he was
in the Robin Reliant and continually rolling over because it
was a three wheel design. You remember that. That was hilarious.
That was a great one. I mean, there's so many
good episodes of that. I just I hate to see
it go if it does go, But um, I just
don't know if it would be accepted with a new
(19:31):
set of hosts. I don't think that it would be,
and that that's a shame, because um it's it's a
great program, it really is. I really like it. Well,
let us know what you think, listeners, and uh, if
if you have some ideas for if if you could
picture anyone pastor present at any time in history hosting
top Gear, who would it be? One of my picks
of course is Henry Ford because he would go nuts
(19:54):
on camera. That's an impossible pick, but that would be
cool hypothetically any history. All right, wait what do you
oh man? Okay, well how about this. Let's switch over
to um hell, how about stuff Scott c. Yeah. Yeah,
there's a few here, and you can stop me anytime
you want. But there's a few things, and I've only
got maybe three or four. Um. One thing that I
(20:17):
think I briefly mentioned this at the head was that
it was I recently saw my first Cadillac E L
R on the road. It was right outside of where
we work now in downtown Atlanta, and it was it
was beautiful. It's a beautiful car. It's really really nice.
I mean, it was a black vehicle. It was in
the morning, you know, the sunlight was hitting it just right.
It looked really good. One thing that I noticed about
(20:38):
this car is that it's very small for a Cadillac.
Now it's not small, otherwise, it's just it's just a
small Cadillac. Didn't have the right proportions. I didn't feel
now it's it's gorge The body shape and everything was
really nice. I mean, it just it seemed to look
like a great vehicle. But this this thing, you have
to remember, it's the seventy five dollar car. It's built
(20:58):
on top of what is the v Volt. So that's
why the short wheelbase, and it's about forty dollars more
than the Chevy Volt. But again, you're paying for all
the Cadillac bells and whistles. You're paying for, you know,
I mean, it's a it's a serious upgrade and what
you get compared to the Volt obviously. Yeah, and just
to be absolutely fair about this, that's seventy five thou
(21:20):
dollar price tag doesn't include the different subsidies that Uncle
Sam will give you. Yeah, you're right, and you know
there's some incentives that you can take advantage of to
to drop that price a little bit. But I mean,
still seventy five thousand dollars for what's essentially a Chevy Vault.
I mean, in the past, you have been paying for
not only all the all the bells and whistles that
make it a Cadillac, as far as um interior comfort
(21:41):
and appearance and all that, you know, the badging, I guess,
but you're also getting a Cadillac drive train, which I
know is taken from other vehicles to you know, depending
on uh, you know, what model you've got, if you
got the CTS V or if you had just the
standard Cadillac, or if you had um, you know, the
the A T S or whatever. They had their own
their own set up. But if you're just simply taking
(22:03):
the Cadillac body and laying and on top of the vault, UM,
I don't know, is it worths more? I mean, is
it is it really worth that that price of entry?
I don't know. I mean, it's got a thirty seven
mile range. Um, so it's not fantastic range on it
by any means. If you go all electric, I think
the range is considerably more. Obviously it's like forty if
(22:26):
you go um, yeah, yeah, hybrid. I mean, so it's
you know, you're partially operating on you know, the battery,
partially on the combustion engine. But thirty seven mile range
for all electric. And that's really the big selling point
in this thing, I guess, is that it is a
hybrid and then you can go all electric if you want. Um.
I don't know, I don't know how to feel about
the Cadillac E L R. I mean, it's again, it's
(22:46):
it's a pretty car, but I just don't know if
I'm really behind the idea of it or not. But
is it PfP pretty for the price? Yeah, that's true.
I'm a bit skeptical about the price. I'll admit that, freely,
per slowly right now. If I were to get an
electric car, then this is just me. I wouldn't be
getting that one. What would you pick when you go Tesla? Now,
(23:11):
that's if I could get anything. Well, that's all electric
versus hybrid, it says. The says kind of the safety
net of being a hybrid. Yeah, if it were, if
I had my druthers, if I could get anything, then
I would probably go. Yeah, Tesla, Yeah, for sure, because
we're in the ballpark of the price. I mean, I
know Tesla's a little more than that still, even even
though I think the lower end Tesla, right, I believe
(23:33):
it's another ten thousand more eleven thousand or something like
that in addition to that, But um, yeah, I don't know.
I just I don't think that would be my pick either.
I mean, I love the Cadillac brand and name and
you know everything about it, but I just don't know
if I could do it for something like that all right,
here's another vehicle, ben that. I don't have a whole
lot to say about this thing, but I just wanted
to get it out there that I saw one on
(23:54):
the road because it's it's a pretty remarkable car in person.
I mean it's dramatic. I saw a Corvet zero six
on the road. It was a white one of all colors.
It's a white car. It's not it's not a red
Corvette or anything. It's a white Corvette. And I only
saw it for about maybe two feet on the on
the highway before it exited. But man, did the guy
driving that thing look happy? I mean, he really did.
(24:14):
He had a huge smile on his face. And I
don't know, I don't know if he just picked it
up because there's a there's a big Chevy dealer that's
right off the highway that you know, we were that
I was traveling on, and I could see it coming
from that dealership in him taking home or whatever, you know,
or to another dealership or whatever he's doing. But the
guy had a huge grin on his face. And I
can understand why. It's a beautiful car. I mean, to
(24:36):
see it in person, it's it's striking. I mean, it's
just it's it stands out even against other Corvette. I
mean it just looks that much dramatically different. It's really
really cool package. Yeah, it's weird when you when you
think about it. I'm glad we're doing stuff Scott Sea's
because now that we've moved to a different place with
a great view of the main drag down here, I
(24:57):
anticipate we're going to be seeing a lot of stuff.
But gotta be honest, man, one thing I miss about
where we used to work is that we could walk
out on our lunch break and I knew I would
see three exotics if I just walked like for twenty minutes. Yeah,
that that Buckhead region of Atlanta is just rich with
with exotics and foreign vehicles that you just don't see
(25:18):
anywhere else. And it's so strange the way that that
that happened right there in that four or five miles
of road, the Lambos alone, man, and it truly was
like it really it's so strange. But I mean at
lunchtime you would see four or five hyper exotic cars
out there, I mean just going to lunch, and then
the Oscar Ween or Oscar myro Winermobile cruises through. Yeah,
(25:39):
and don't get me wrong, there's a lot of everything
out there. But but what other places? I mean, Okay,
maybe Miami. You know, if you're in downtown Miami, you
might see something like they're similar scene, I guess, but
it's it's a really it's it's a strange car scene
there in Buckhead, Atlanta. I might go up there again
just a car watch because it made me feel like
(26:00):
I always in Grand Theft Auto five And don't worry, guys,
that didn't try to steal a car. But but what
else have you seen? Okay, let's see. Um Okay, here's
one that's just I don't even know if this is
automotive related. And maybe it's a maybe it's the topic
that you and I can work into a into a show,
all right, so loosely automotive related. UM. I was driving
(26:20):
through Indiana recently. Um had a long trip and maybe
I'll talk about this in a little while, But um,
I was in northern Indiana and I saw a particular motel,
you know, like not a hotel, but a motel that
can you would drive right up to the dorm park
and you know, you get the key and go in
kind of like the like the Bates Motel or something, right,
and uh, in this case, very much like that. This
(26:41):
was this one was called the Wolf, It's called Wolf's
motor In and it's in northern Indiana and it was
run down, it was it was abandoned. Uh, you know,
the sign was falling down. You know, there's weeds in
the parking lot and everything. And it did look a
lot like the Bates Motel to me. I mean, it
was that kind of look, right. But I was thinking,
I was just wondering that we don't we don't really
see a whole lot of those functioning anymore. I mean,
(27:02):
I know there's a few here and there, but that
used to be the thing, you know, that you would
pull into these these motor ins or and I know
that's a brand name, I think, motor In. But um,
it seems like there might be some type of car
culture topic that ties into this that, um, you know,
the death of the motor ins or the death of
the motels. But but picture exactly like you know, something
(27:24):
exactly like the Bates Motel, and you know that there's
hundreds of those that are abandoned all across the United
States particularly, and and again exactly like what happened on
in the movie Psycho. The highway bypasses that area and
that business just drives up, and that's exactly what happened.
You know, the main the main roads are bypassed. You know,
what was the main road, a two lane highway for
(27:47):
a super you know, super highway and interstate system and
uh and those just kind of dried up and died
and went away. But the buildings remain, you know, the
signs remain from the nineteen fifties. It was part of
car culture and in a way, I don't know if
we can do that something with that or not, but
it's still cool to look at part of the part
of the road trip culture. They're also you know, people
(28:08):
call them tourist traps. Uh. There there's still a lot
of those. I'll tell you that. When I go back
up to Appalachia and that in that area, you see
a lot of that stuff. And and there are quite
a few that survive due to tourism, you know. But
with the rise of the big business hotels and the
(28:32):
like express versions they've made of themselves, it's pretty tough
for local business to compete with that kind of economy
of scale. These are places that you know, the house
right next to it is the people that own it,
right and if they're going to if they're going to renovate,
which most of them haven't been renovated in thirty years,
forty years or whatever, because the ones that you do
see are pretty run down. I know there's examples out there,
(28:54):
they're nice, but most of them are run down. If
they're going to renovate, they've got to buy twenty beds,
they've gotta buy twenty sets a dressers and nightstands and
stuff like that, and they're just not gonna be able
to do that to keep up with the big brands.
And that's what happened. But it's it's fascinating to me
to see these places and to think about what happened
at those places as far as you know, like what
kind of cars would you see there in the nineteen
(29:15):
forties and the parking lot? How just think about like
old photographs that you've seen of you know, those those
motels with just a line of cars from the nineties
and fifties or even earlier, because you know people driving
older rex at that time, right from the nineties. Um,
so there's some fascinating car history type stuff there. I
don't know, it's a loose association, I get it. But
(29:37):
but maybe there's something to do there, you know, for
for car stuff an upcoming episode. Yeah, let us because
I'd love to do something on the rise and fall
of motor lodges. And maybe, like Mark Twain said, maybe
the reports of their death have been exaggerated. Now, maybe
that would be great. Maybe. Uh, let's see, I've got well,
let's see, you got something else you saw? Okay, how
about one more quick things and I won't spend too
(29:58):
much time again on that aime trip. I was driving
through and this is in the let's see, I guess
we've been early March and Kentucky, of all places that
just had a huge snowstorm. It was almost like when
you first went across the border, it was like right
at the border, they had a lot of snow and
it was right on the side of the road. It
had just been cleared from the night before. And for
for Kentucky, it's a lot of snow, not anywhere north
(30:19):
of that, but for Kentucky it was. And um, coming back,
you know that this happened when I was there, and
it was only like a three day trip. So when
I came back, Um, I saw on the side of
the road and there were a lot of cars that
had spun off and the other fifty feet off the road,
sixty ft off the road, and they're backwards and you know,
facing straight up in a ditch and that kind of thing.
Because as Kentucky, they don't really know how to drive
(30:39):
in the snow. I get it. I understand that the
terrains not there, and the you know, the equipment and
everything isn't available. There was one car in particular that
I saw and I passed it going fast on the highway,
so I didn't get a good, real good look at it.
This is so weird. Most people when they pull off
to the side, they pull way off to the side
right and the cars relatively safe. It gets buried from
the snow plows or what ever. I understand that, and
(31:00):
it's piled up to the door. Well, this car was,
I mean right on the road on the on the
expressway like interstate, and it was right on the side,
so that almost like the the you know, the driver's
side mirror was in the lane of traffic for the
slow lane. It was that close. And now there's the
snow all around it. But what was unusual about this
one car? Now, it's a kind of like it was
(31:21):
almost like an economy car, and it wasn't real badly
like smashed or anything, but the entire left side of
the car was missing every panel, what every panel? And
I thought, this is weird, And I thought, how is you?
I thought the same thing, How is that possible? I
think a snow plow probably clipped this thing after the
driver had pulled over the side of the road, so
they haven't come back yet to see it because there's
(31:43):
snow still piled around it. But the panels, like the
the rear quarter panel, the driver's door, in the front panel,
the front fender, we're all missing. And you could see,
like you know that that crosswork of braces, uh, that's
just below the panel, just below the panel. Itself crazy,
but how weird that it would be stripped away like
that and and cleanly, and without you know, the car
(32:05):
being thrown off to the side of the road or
anything like that. It was like it just barely nipped
it enough to pull those off. And I don't even
know how that's possible, Ben, I don't was the car
driven there like that? I don't. I don't think that
it was. Because of where it was positioned and how
it looked. I thought, this, this car has just been
stripped like a snowplot. Must have just ripped the whole
side off the cars. It was a weird thing. Here's
(32:29):
how here's how weird it was. I I truly thought
about going to the next exit, coming back, parking somewhere
behind it and taking a photograph of it. But there's
no way because of where it was positioned. I would
have had to have stood on the highway to take
the photo, and there's no way I'm going to do that.
But it was that bizarre, like it was so strange
to me to see that. I've never seen anything quite
like that and so cleanly removed. So yeah, there's a
(32:51):
mystery there. Yeah, I mean I almost feel like it was,
you know, left there that way, but the but the
where it was, in the appearance of it, it made
it look like it had been a horrific accident. I
can just imagine what an owner would think if they
came back and found that vehicle like that. Well, now
that we're talking about things that are a little bit
more mysterious or maybe even creepy. I'd like to tell
our listeners about something you already know about because I
(33:13):
mentioned it to you. I don't think it's enough for
a full podcast, so let's spend some time talking about it. Now.
Rental cars. We've all had experience with rental cars, and
you know, if you mind your pie's and queues, if
you're very careful about what you agreed to in the beginning,
it can be a great deal. But there's a lot
of fine print, and there's so much fine print. Yes,
(33:35):
there's a dictionary's worth of fine print, and it's becoming
more complicated. Another story that recently hit the news as
of March of this year, I can tell you almost
exactly when. It's probably March. I'm gonna guess somewhere in
there right around. Yeah, good guess. Uh so you know
what we're talking about, right? Oh? Yes, I do so, guys. Hurts,
(34:00):
one of the largest names in uh in car rental business,
has now decided that they are going to install cameras
but wait also microphones in cars as part of their
GPS navigation system. Boy. Yeah, but before you worry about
Big Brother, don't worry about Hurts. Because they said they're
(34:21):
not gonna watch you. Specifically, what they said is that
they don't have the capability installed right now to watch you.
Sure they don't, Yeah right, I know this is bringing
out my tinfoil hat. Well, okay, here's the thing. We've
all seen the dash cam footage right of you know,
from the crazy stuff that happens in Russia to right
here in the United States or wherever Australia, it doesn't matter,
it happens everywhere. But the dash cams have a microphone
(34:44):
built in, so it's also recording recording the cockpit audio
that you know, when you're driving the vehicle that I
guess the cabin audio. It's cabin the cabin audio plus video,
and I bet it so. I mean, it's probably just
a way to you know, the c y a move
on their part, uh, to say, well, if anything does
happen in the rental car, um, we've we've got video proof.
(35:05):
Hang on though, uh this uh hang on. The cameras
are driver facing what their driver facing, So they're not
even facing out the front window where I would think
that they would be like any other dash cam would be, right,
These are facing at the driver and recording audio of
what the drivers doing. Yeah, video and audio. These are
(35:25):
in some of the These are in some of the cars.
Hurts apparently told Fusion that around one out of every
eight cars had its camera installed. But don't worry, they're
not actually going to use them. Why would they ever
need to watch what the driver is doing? I don't understand.
There has to be some precedent for this. What I mean,
I mean maybe you don't even know the answer to this.
(35:47):
I don't. I have not heard this anywhere. But what
is the reason that they need to watch the driver
while they're they're driving their rental car? All right, I've
got you, you're ready. Yeah. This statement comes to us
via c Net. Hurt spokeswoman Evelyn in Paratrist says the
cameras and Never Lost six units aren't functional and cannot
(36:07):
be turned on under any circumstances by either renters or
by the company. When we chose the new hardware device
for Never Lost six, that's their proprietary GPS, we included
a camera option in the event that a video conferencing
function might be a useful future application that renters would welcome. Okay,
so how many times have we heard though that somebody
can hack in and they can, they can watch you
(36:29):
from your own laptop via that little camera that's there.
How long before you think that someone well, you know what,
doesn't even have to be someone hacking in this could
just be somebody in the Hurts company that decides I'm
gonna switch that camera on while that person's renting to
see what they're up to, not not necessarily thinking that
they're going to catch them doing anything that they shouldn't
be doing, just just out of curiosity, like let's see
(36:50):
what this let's see what this person is doing where
they are. She continues the spokesperson to say, we have
always intended that the video conferencing function our rental kiosk,
which have video conferencing capability, could only be activated by
renters at their sole discretion if, for example, they were
lost in an accident or their vehicle broke down, they
preferred to interact with a Hurts employee through live video chat. Okay, big,
(37:14):
big difference here is that you're standing, you're stepping up
to a video kiosk knowing that you were filling out
a form here. You know you're there to do a
certain task. Driving a car, you think, you think when
you close that door and you drive away from the
dealership or the rental facility. You think you're on your own.
You think that you're alone in that car. Now whatether
(37:34):
that's you know, somebody who's uh singing along, you know,
to the radio, and you know they would otherwise be
embarrassed if somebody were to see them doing that. I
don't know, picking your nose, I don't know, but but
I bet they're they're trying to catch people that maybe
are drinking well driving, texting well driving, um by somebody
steals a car, you violating. Oh you know what, that's okay,
(37:55):
maybe that's a good use for it. But but that's
a slippery slope to say, like that's a good use
for it, let's leave it in, because there's all these
other reasons that they shouldn't leave it in. So so
I'm not going to agree to that either. But this
is a huge invasion of privacy. I mean, it really is.
But but if you're violent, they're they're going to use
it to catch you violating parts of that contract you
(38:16):
may not even know were there in the fine fine lines.
So let's say that you do stop at a stop
light and you feel it's safe to text somebody. Now,
I know you shouldn't be doing, but let's say that
you do that, and in there you had initialed something
that said that I agree to pay a fine of
X number of dollars if if I'm caught violating any
of these conditions. And that's one of those things, or
what if, um, what what if you're eating? What if
(38:39):
you're people smoking? Distracted driving? I distracted driving could be
something that they have on a checklist, like I agreed
to not not engage in distracted driving. But you know,
sipping a soda that you got at a at a
gas station a mile down the road, and they happen
to flip on the camera and see you doing that,
They'll take a still of that, and then when you
return the vehicles, say, by the way, we're charying fifty
(39:00):
extra dollars. And here's the reason. Here's a photo of
you with your big gulp from the racetrack gas station. So,
just on a personal note, Uh, some of our listeners
know that one of the shows I do is about
this kind of stuff, right, and you've actually appeared on
that show before. Yeah, but the with that in mind,
(39:24):
I understand that I would probably have a clear personal
bias against this stuff. But this is all kinds of
unsafe to me in term for for consumers. Uh. And
this is nothing against hurts because the reasons that they're
giving are valid. They're protecting their property. Right. You don't
own the car. You rent a car as part of
(39:45):
a service. I I wonder if other rental companies will
start doing this or if this is gonna be something that,
um like, what's another company like if Avis would start
doing this, because if Avis doesn't, then they might had
a lot more people coming in just with these privacy concerns.
And and I want to hear what you think about this,
two listeners? Is this right wrong? Where where does this fall? Yeah?
(40:10):
This is a strange one. And I hope I don't
sound too conspiracy theory you know, you know out there
or anything, but but honestly, like it just seems like
a huge violation of your privacy. It really does. And
I don't even know if they they are up front
with the customers when you check out a car, I
don't I don't know all the details of how the
the process goes. If they say, you know, by the way,
this vehicle is equipped with a brand new, never lost system,
(40:31):
and uh, there is a camera that faces towards you.
We made choose to switch that on at some point, right, Yeah,
they said they don't have the bandwidth now, but I
don't know. I'd be I'd be interested to see how
this develops. And if you've had experience with this, let
us know what it looks like. I hate to say it, man,
but we're running a little low on time. Yeah we are.
We run a little bit long time, so stay tuned
(40:53):
for our next episode. In the meantime. If you enjoy
Nuts and Bolts this time around, then oh buddy, we
thirteam more that you could check out, so please give
it a listen. You can find us at Car Stuff
Show dot com. We're on Twitter, we're on Facebook. We'd
like to hear from you on both of those where
we are Car Stuff hs W and if you have
(41:13):
something that we should read on the air, then let
us know. Oh, by the way, thanks to Eric, Chris
and Derek for the excellent emails. And if you want
to take a page out of their book and suggest
a topic for us, tell us a story, or tell
us what you think about those creepy hurts cameras, then
we're all ears. You can email us at our stuff
at how stuff works dot com. For more on this
(41:38):
and thousands of other topics, is how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think, send an email to
podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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