December 4, 2014 • 37 mins
Have you written an email, facebook message or tweet to Scott and Ben? If so, tune in, because you just might be a guest on their continuing Nuts and Bolts segment. Each episode of Nuts and Bolts is a grab bag of fascinating trivia, fan mail, Stuff Scott Sees and other stuff too interesting to not make it on 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 welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott and I'm then then. Today
is one of my favorite type of episodes as we do. Yeah,
it's the most wonderful time of the year in the
podcast studio when we get to finally compile all those
(00:24):
leftover things that we couldn't quite fit into one episode. Yeah,
there's some of that, and there's also quite a bit
of listener mail and Facebook posts and things like that
that we just simply can't get to. We try to
answer as many of them as we can, but we
don't always get to everything. And we said that many
many times. But um, this is kind of our clearing
out of our inbox, I guess right. And we as
(00:46):
we were recording this, we're not we having completely convinced
each other what title we should use, so we also
get to kick around, uh different titles, you know, Yes,
some puns twelve, Angry Nuts and Bolts as yours, that's
one thought. That's one. Um, I was thinking, uh, Nuts
and Bolts twelve, the Dirty dozen? How about Nuts and
Bolts Oceans twelve? Oh good? Yeah? Nice? Now all we
(01:09):
need is an ocean. Uh. Yeah, but the rumors are true.
We are doing nuts and bolts of the twelfth installment
and you guys, we love this. We love this whole thing.
Can I tell you something, Ben, I think that today.
And I've got a two piles here. I've got a
pile of just kind of notes that I've written down,
you know, over the last couple of months, just some
unusual things that I've seen and some things that I
(01:31):
wanted to bring up on this particular show. Uh, some
unusual story things like that. And I've also got another
pile that has Facebook posts and email and stuff and
try to kind of evenly distribute these. There's a couple
of things here that really aren't car related, some that
are car related. Some things will just come off the
top of my head. I guess maybe um corrections, I
guess here and there. But there's just a little bit
(01:51):
of everything that goes on. And uh, and I'd like
to start maybe with with one simple correction because it's
a recent episode that we did and it's not from anybody.
It's just something that I was uh investigating afterwards, and
I think that I misspoken one of our episodes. Oh,
laid on me. This is for chain drive cars, okay,
and we're talking about the Polarists slingshot, and I think
I referred to it as a chain drive vehicle, and
(02:13):
technically it's a belt drive vehicle. Now I know that's
not a huge distinction to have to make there, but um,
technically it is a belt drive vehicle. And I believe
I said it was a chain drive and I was mistaken. Well,
coming clean, you feel better, You feel like weight is
off your shoulder. I kind of do it. So this
is a bit like um, confession. It's a bit like
confession in this whole episode will be a bit like
(02:35):
sou Let's go ahead and start with some uh some
interesting post from Facebook here, uh Dan c on Monday
of this week. Actually he sent us this really cool thing.
I don't know if you saw this, he said here.
It is the forty five gallon snowplow. I took two
thirds of a forty five gallon drum, oil drum, and
(02:55):
other various parts in and around the barn, including some
stuff from an old plow, did minimum minimal modifications to
the green van and it works great. Also have a
three thousand pound winch mounted to a car seat frame
inside the van. With this, I think we're getting close
to the feeling ready for winter this year. You know what,
I watched the video for this. I did. I did
see this, and I watched the video. The plow was
(03:17):
mounted to the back of the vehicle right with the
with the gate open, and uh and it took the
bumper off. Oh yeah, that's why I took the bumper off.
And I watched him plowing. It looked like a field,
I mean, pushing snow up towards a big woodpile. But
it looked very effective. What a cool way to do that.
So it's a low dollar way to put a snow
plow on a vehicle that really shouldn't have a snowplow
on it. Yeah, yeah, that I thought that was super creative,
(03:40):
very creative. If I could well bend, you can you
can do anything. If you can well came. I mean really,
it's a great skill to have. If if it's if
that's one thing that I could I could tell, you
know myself, I go back, you know, if I could
go back and tell say, you know, say will this
is I'm your future self to Young Scott, Benjamin Young Scott,
Benjamin I would say, learn how to well stop hot
rodding on the high school park and blackwid hopping around
(04:02):
here like Johnny hot sauce and get your act together
and learn out of weld Yeah, yeah, you can write
your ticket. You can. Uh. Welding is a skill that
one can wield well. Not bad. That was tough. My
tendency almost came out. Hey, Ben, let's take a minute
to pause for a word from our sponsor. Do you
mean Paul is p A W S? Would I say?
(04:23):
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(05:50):
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So act now before it is too late. Check out
BarkBox dot com forward slash car stuff. Let's get back
to our topic. Here's a great note from our long
(06:10):
time listener Richard Are. Oh, yes, you know what? Keep reading? Okay,
and I've got an answer for Richard. Oh okay, good?
Do you know what I'm about to read? I think
I do, all right? Uh So, Richard says, first of all,
I'd like to know some things I used to be
in the tire business. There's some jargon that I don't remember.
I think the grooves and tires are called SIPs, but
I can't remember what those little bumps are where tires
(06:33):
are molded. They look like hairs coming out of the
tires from the excess rubber. I also think it would
be a good idea to tell people about hydroplaning if
you haven't already. Have you, guys, ever done a podcast
or partial podcast on tires. There's a little more. I'm
gonna stop right there for a second. Yeah, I think
we have that we have done a podcast on tires
and uh and also maybe touched on hydroplaning. Maybe not
(06:55):
the full episode I think if we did, it was
a long time ago, and it was about car control,
and I think there was a law. There's a state
law that's named for some uh some young driver who
encountered that situation and didn't turn out so well. We
also talked a little bit about it in swerving, you know,
the old debate whether you should turn in or out
of a swerve, and uh, yeah, car control. Yeah, I
(07:17):
mean I guess yeah, I don't know what it would
be called, but yeah, we've kind of touched on it.
But maybe hydro planting is a is a good episode
on its own because we could describe exactly what's going on. Yeah,
scary situation. So Richard goes on to say, also some
fun stuff. I took some people, family and friends this
race track where the person who hired the limousine rented
because you guys, remember Richard drives a limo. Where the
(07:40):
person who hired the limousine rented the raceway and took
his cars so his family and friends could drive around
the track. How cool is that. I looked up the
raceway as well, Button Willow Raceway. Yeah, very nice looking
road course with lots of configurations. Defends it depends on
who's racing there. I guess the configuration they choose, but
really cool track button Willow, California. But uh, Richard is
(08:01):
always our go to guy for limo information, so he's
coming to us for this. This this answer. And I
apologize Richard for not writing back sooner than this. I mean,
I think you wrote us on Halloween and UM, we're
just not getting back to him. Sorry about that. But UM,
I do have an answer for you. Um. You know
you mentioned the grooves or grooving that's on the on
the tires, and this is this one I've only got
kind of a partial answer for. But uh, sights are
(08:24):
the are the slits that are on the side of
the tire, on the shoulder part of the tire. The
grooving is in the middle part of the tire, the
main part of the tire, if you want to think
about it that way, like where the contact patch would be. Yeah,
the sights are on the shoulder that kind of go
up and around and you can see them from the
side of the vehicle. And uh, and I haven't really
got a specific answer for this because it looked like
(08:45):
they're the the part of the tire that are part
of the grooves that doesn't connect to the main part
of the groups, like the slits cut in the side,
and you can get your tires sighted, which is uh.
I don't know. I've never really thought this was a
good idea. But when you get a brand new tire,
you can have an extra service that they call siping
down to them where they cut really tiny little slits
in the the treadblocks and it supposedly allows for better traction.
(09:08):
That comes from a guy that used to work in
a in a slaughterhouse back in the nineteen twenties. That's
where all this comes from. Cut. He cut sipe grooves
into his rubber rubber sold shoes back in the Yeah,
because he was walking on this slippery slaughterhouse floor, which
is gross to think about, but he was slipping around
on these rubber sold shoes. So he cut these little
(09:30):
tiny grooves in his in his shoes, realized it worked,
and then he patented that and sold it to the
tire companies. Dude, that's fascinating. It is, I mean, and
I don't I can't tell you that that's for real
what it is. I mean, that's kind of the lower
that goes along with us um okay, and then the
last thing, and I do have an answer for you here, Richard.
Those tiny little hair like bits of rubber on your
car tire or your bike tires are called sprus. And
(09:52):
the way it's spelled as spr u e s there's
sprus and those are the little bits of rubber that
went into the vent hole holes when the tire was
being molded. So when it's when it's liquid, when they're
injecting into the mold or they're pressing it into the mold,
they have these air holes and that's the just a
little bit the rubber that kind of squeeze out through
those those holes, so you can you can remove them
(10:13):
with no harm. I mean, they're they're not really an
integral part of the tire. It's just part of the
manufacturing process. So um, yeah, sights and sprus. Nice. Nice,
you sewed it up. We've got another letter here. It's
an email from Jason M. Jason M is an automotive
engineer currently contracting at Google. And uh, I think you
(10:33):
saw this one too, said just listen to your podcast,
really enjoying them. We appreciate it. He's writing a response
to a couple of episodes, one is about the cam back.
He said, you asked, why don't Bonneville cars have a
cam back. I've been to Bonneville many times. It's a
religious experience. Go seriously, this is not optional. Just go.
And I've been heavily involved in the design of a
small streamliner, so he's actually building one of these. He said.
(10:57):
The reason streamliners don't do the camback thing is stability.
And he said, of course, you guys have seen the
world's fastest Indian remember when Bert Monroe was holding the
pencil and blowing on it. Aerodynamics, especially at the salt flats,
Like throwing a dart at a dartboard, center of mass
must be in front of the center of pressure. Small
heavyweight in front, light, big fletching in the rear. It's
very common for cars to get this backwards or just
(11:19):
too close together. Not coincidentally, it's also very common for
cars at Bonneville to spin out. Every throw dart backwards.
No matter how hard you try, it always goes forward. Ever,
throw one without the fletching. Also a long wheelbase to
give some more straight line stability. And Jason went on
to write some awesome stuff about radial rotary and uh
(11:39):
some clarification with the cam back. Uh, he said, I
love the moose test episode and uh. He also he said, uh,
when we did our Most Complicated Engine podcast, he said, guys,
the old to fifteen. I know this is someone else's list,
but the only thing complexes that had a turbo charger
(12:00):
with water injection, which is all fairly common stuff, is
the same base as a Buick nail head later bought
by Toyota, used in land Cruiser and later form the
base of Lexus engines. I knew we were going to
get some people saying that the complicated engines weren't as complicated. Sure,
but that was nine. Yeah. I think there's a context there. Yeah,
I think there is. And again that's somebody else's list.
(12:21):
But what I do. You know what I love about
this this note is that he compares uh, the high
speed cars of Bonneville to throwing darts and really, well,
that was well written. That is that I can completely
picture the way that he has laid that out there.
That was that was really well written. I mean as
an engineer, so I like it a lot. So thank
you so much for writing to us, Jason. Let's move on, Scott,
(12:42):
do you want to do some more mail or do
you have a you have a car story for us?
You know what, I've got a couple of things that
I'll just kind of quickly get out there and um again,
some are auto related and some are not. But let's
let's start with this. Okay. I was thinking the other
day the other morning, were we were, you know, doing
this uh this exotic car shoot. Right, we're talking about
Ferraris and we're talking about mass production because remember they
(13:02):
started out the first year they built like two cars,
you know. Now they're up to seventy cars a year
like that, and they're they're somewhat automated there, like semi automated.
They they do all the fit and finishing at the
end by work. The end work, like the end product
is hand assembled, but there's there's uh um mechanisms in
(13:23):
place elsewhere that that you know, robots that put things together.
All right. So my my question was this, I wonder,
what's the absolute least number of people is necessary to
build a modern production car? Now? I mean, if you
have a big factory and you've got most of the
line is automated, I understand that you've got you know
this this enormous you know, I don't know fifty I
(13:45):
don't even if I should stay a number, maybe a
five million square facilitation. What's the least number of people
that you need in that facility to put a car
together from start to finish. Well, that's a good question.
Do you have the answer? Actually I don't have the answer.
And that's the thing, like, you know, what what is
left in assembly that has to be done by hand
by a person? I mean, is there anything or could
(14:06):
it completely be automated? Well, okay, I think part of
the answer will be found in our sphere of what
counts as building the car. So do we then count
the people who transport the materials to the factory? You know,
I'm gonna say, like in the in the factory itself,
like where they do the assembly. Okay, well, you gotta
(14:27):
have at least one or two people to take care
of the machines. They're doing everything. So I mean, what
about what about I mean, could there be robots that
go around and fix other robots? Is it possible? That's
crazy future talk, guy, I mean, I know, but is
it is it possible? It is? You know, it might
not be possible right now, but that maybe maybe make
(14:47):
a good point. There's probably gotta be maintenance with within
eight years, I'm sure. And there's people that drive the
end product off the end of the you know, at
the end of the line, they pull him out of
the parking left. But that could be automated in some way.
Have you ever seen the footage of those super creepy
automated IKEA warehouses, Yes, yeah, where they just they don't
need lights because robots don't need to see. Very strange idea.
(15:09):
It's weird, man, But yeah, to answer your question, it
is it is possible, especially with the rise of intelligent
autonomous vehicles. Um, it may be possible for an automated
factory to manufacture vehicle that drives itself to the dealership. Yeah,
(15:29):
this is strange. It's a strange idea, I know, but
it just would make you think. I guess, like, what's
the absolute least number of people necessary to build a
modern production car? So think about that for a while.
You know, right in if you have experience in this,
and you can say there's there's at least six jobs
that have to be done by human and yeah, and
here's why, not counting administrative work. You guys don't don't
(15:53):
name don't name six people in HR just supervise one guy.
I mean, I mean, yeah, the the robots aren't going
to know each other. I don't think so well, they'll
they'll get around to it. Uh. Here just some quick
um car stories, some which are apocryphal, some which are
definitely true, and some which are in between. Right. Uh.
(16:15):
And also before we jump into that, let's just give
a big shout out to our super producer, Noel Brown.
Ladies and gentlemen, the man himself. Um. Every so often
they'll we'll look up if we say something that he
thinks is funny or dumb. And I consider it a
great I considered a great honor when I can hear
(16:37):
him chuckle a little bit in the background. Yeah, it's
tough man, ice, cold, difficult room. It's a difficult it's
a tough house. I need to tie so I can
do that. What mel Brooks though, Rodney Dangerfield, Yes, sir,
so okay. Apparently somebody stole Mr Rogers car. Have you
(16:58):
heard this story? No? Apparently a long time ago. Uh,
someone stole Mr Rogers car. And when they found out
who it was after the theft was reported on the news,
the thieves returned the vehicle with a note that said, sorry,
we didn't know it was yours. Wow, which I you know,
I haven't confirmed this, but I believe it could happen.
(17:19):
You know what. That's that's a feel good story, right there. Ben,
That's nice that somebody would do that because that guy,
I mean, everything I've learned about that guy, Mr Rogers,
seems like he was really on the level. I mean
he was. He was what he portrayed himself as on television.
He wasn't like one of these guys that you know
it says one thing on TV and then acts a
different way in his personal life. It seemed like that
was just the way he was. The genuine good guy. Yeah,
(17:42):
and former marine to which a lot of people don't know.
I don't think I remember that. Yeah, So here's another
thing totally different. Um an update on the state of
cars in Cuba. Now, I remember, Scott, you and I
did a podcast a while back on Cuban cars, right,
we did, and because of some sanctions that the United
(18:04):
States imposed on Cuba, Uh, there was a freeze on
the kind of cars they goodbye, so um d I
y mechanics on the island have done, just astonishing work,
phenomenal work to keep those old cars on the road,
and with some of the some of the ingenuity that
they showed keeping those on the road, you know, with
wooden parts, replacing metal parts, fabricating your own parts, reliably
(18:29):
incredible stuff. So here's the news. Earlier this year, the
Cuban government lifted their own internal sanctions, right, you heard
about this, right, so people could freely buy cars if
they wanted. Uh. The US still bans automobile exports to Cuba,
but other manufacturers like Pougeau and France, uh can sell
(18:51):
to them just fine, because these are you know, unilateral
US trade restrictions. Right. Uh, However, there's a catch, and
there's a string attached. You already know what I'm gonna say,
right Yeah, the markup on these things is ridiculous. And guys,
you know I'm cheap, but despite my bias, I think
you will also find this ridiculous. A new vehicle, a
(19:14):
new car because of these markups, can cost anywhere from
nine dollars now that's the bottom price, to two hundred
and sixty two thousand dollars. Scott, this isn't a country
where the average person only earns about two dollars a year. Also, now, wait, okay,
two hund forty dollars a year, and we're talking about
an entry of dollars. So and we're not talking about
(19:36):
any kind of high end luxury or sports cars. We're
talking about these are these are your average to dance sure, yeah,
these are things that would probably be what do you say,
mid thirties, mid thirty thousands. So they're available, you can
get them, it's just their unaffordable. And the problem is
a lot of cars from before the sanctions, you know,
are are sixty year years old now, Scott And no
(19:57):
matter how um, how carefully and tenaciously and doggedly you
maintain the vehicle, um and treat it well, the truth
of the matter is that you cannot have a daily
driver for that long and expect it to survive. Yeah,
there's just too much going wrong with it at one time,
and it's going to get to the point where they're
(20:19):
unable to put a band aid on that. Yeah, that's
gonna be the problem. All right. So I've got a
couple of things here that i'd like to cover, right, um,
and I'll do these kind of quick. Um. This is
something interesting that I saw it was on my way
to work. Now this is about a week before Halloween,
so I'm I'm a little suspect when I when when
I mentioned this, but I was on the highway. I
(20:40):
was on the on the main road coming into the
office here and a cyclist. Now there's a heavy traffic
and there's a shoulder lane, and you know, usually buses
going that lane. I think in the morning, there's a
certain hour or two when it's allowed, you know, you
can travel in that lane. And a guy goes flying
by in the in the shoulder lane on a motorcycle.
And here's what's the newsal been. He's wearing a green
(21:03):
money suit like the guy in that Geico commercial, you
know where the money peeled off right now. The difference is, yeah,
this is so weird. And the reason I mentioned Halloween
thing is because I was thinking maybe maybe, but what's
he doing on like a you know, random Monday or Tuesday,
headed into work, you know, or wherever he's going. I mean,
it was a full week ahead of you know, five
(21:23):
days ahead of Halloween, and it wasn't on the weekend,
so he's not really going to like a costume party
or anything like that. I mean, I don't know what
the guys deal. Maybe he stole this is so weird
and the way the way I would describe it, and
I only had a few seconds to see it, it
had it did have that like kind of like loose
bill looked to it, like where there were things flapping
in the wind, but they looked like they might have
(21:44):
been leather. And I couldn't tell if he had his
face painted green like the guy did in the commercial
or anything like that. He had a silver helmet on,
like um, a chrome helmet, and uh, you know, I
would never know if it was a guy that's normally
on that road at that Maybe I don't know, but
it was just it was a really it was interesting
to see it. It was a good look alike. I
mean it really was. It was it was quick from
you know, I saw it for like three or four
(22:05):
seconds and it was that fast and he was gone.
Got to be like an office party or something. I
don't know, but it was such a it was such
a fascinating costume. And if it was leather, how expensive
is that costume just to make for that one day?
You might as well be made of real money. I mean,
it was it was really interesting though. All right, um,
and I'll do a couple more things. You're just quick.
Not that there's anything detailed about this. I just kind
(22:27):
of kind of put this on everybody's radar. Micro SUVs.
Have you ever heard of micro SUVs? And you're growing alright, Well, no, okay,
I can be honest with you. Heard of it, don't
like it? Okay, so you've heard of them, but you
don't like them. They're built on a sub compact car frame.
They're there, you know, high seating position, which everybody says
(22:47):
is the number one thing that they like about these SUVs, right,
They always say that, Um, you know, you can carry
some stuff in it, unlike in a like a little
you know, small small microcar um thirty plus miles per
gallon something like that. That's good, that's good. I'm not
a fan of these either, but I just thought i'd
put it out there that there there's something called micro SUVs. Yeah,
(23:08):
and I don't think a lot of people are really
talking about but they just seem like because of their footprint.
The ones I've seen are crazy like top heavy, you know,
I mean, I think they could flip super easily. They
do look like that and I think a good example
this and I think this is one. I'm not sure
how it's classified, but that BMW I three is that one? It?
Maybe you know what that's a good nominee. I think
(23:30):
it is. That's kind of the look I mean, it's
it's very squat and very tall. Um it seems like
that's about um, you know, micro suv proportions. But anyways,
they just start to throw it out there that they're
a new format. Oh can I throw out a p
s A Yeah, okay, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for
tuning into this public service announcement of car stuff. We
(23:51):
want to warn you about game shows, particularly prizes, and
game shows especially cars as prizes in game shows. You know,
you've seen that thing Scott where someone's going and your
prize is, oh, brand new car. The crowd goes crazy
and the crowd goes nuts, and everyone's like, oh, man,
I wish I could have a free car. Yeah right.
(24:13):
The contestant maybe fainting because they're happy, but they may
also be fainting because they realize that it's not a
free car. You still have to pay sales tax. In
the United States, so this varies from state to state. Uh,
a lot of people didn't know about this until an
episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in two thousand four.
(24:33):
Remember this one, I think is this the Beatles story? Yeah,
the entire it was a Pontiac g six. The entire audience,
two hundred and seventy six people, Scott. They all got
a car worth twenty eight thousand, five hundred dollars. So
that makes the final price tag and not counting tax
seven point nine million UM. But the tax bill that
(24:56):
people got for it, it's around six grand. Wow. So
everybody in the and said to pay six thousand dollars
for this, for this free gift. So you know a
lot of people just couldn't do that. Six thousand dollars
is a lot of stratchy. It definitely, isn't it for
something to just be kind of I mean, it's toss nice,
it's nice. It's a gift, right, but you know, here's
here's a gift. And then by the way, you know,
(25:17):
get out your checkbook. Right. So we've heard about this,
you know, people have kind of there's been rumors about
this ever since, you know, like the early Game Show
days when they started giving out cars, because before that
you know, it's a big deal if you want a
stove or something like that, or washer and dryer. That
was you know, appliances were a huge deal. And then
when they started giving out cars, people went nuts. They
thought this was fantastic. And then there was always kind
(25:39):
of that rumor like, yeah, it's a good deal, but
you got you got that big tax bill to pace
and as uh, you know, Susie when the showcase showed down,
the same thing with boats, Same thing with boats. Okay,
but what's weird to me is shouldn't the show pay
for it? And then, um, also, just in case you
guys are ever in this game show situation, remember this
is this is actual advice for Scott and I. If
(26:01):
they offer you the car, you say, can you give
me cash? You know, just I would rather have cash.
They'll probably say no. You know what in the in
in the modern day, you know, when the when the
gifts and the the prizes seem to go into like
you know, the the tens of thousands, if not hundreds
of thousands of dollars for some in some cases, it
seems like they might offer a car and say, yeah,
(26:23):
of course that's tax free. You know, we've already paid
the tax for the sales tax for you. Maybe they would,
but um, I don't know, or your your winnings would
be enough that you could absorb that. I don't know.
But you know, back in let's say the nineteen six,
late nineteen sixties, for given out you know, Giant Cadillac
to somebody on let's make a deal or whatever. Um,
I bet that tax bill really hurt them at that time.
I mean it had to have, you know. I Also
(26:45):
this also makes me wonder what are the strangest things
that game shows have ever given away? The weird things? Yeah,
you know, Japan gets pretty weird with their game shows. Yes,
I do, they get really weird. This is totally unrelated,
so we'll examine it in a later episode. But what
do you have? All Right, I'm gonna do a couple
more quick things and then okay, this is just something
that's been driving me crazy recently, and that and then
(27:06):
I hope other listeners are feeling the same way about this.
But general motors, cars and trucks that when you know
somebody is walking back out into the parking lot, you know,
from from going in to eat or you know, the
shopping or whatever, and they come back and they hit
that button on their key fob that that is to
unlock the doors. When they do that general motors, cars
and trucks, um, they they illuminate the reverse lights the
(27:31):
system and they stay on. So here's the problem. This
happened to me so many times. I'm walking back to
my car and someone behind me or in front of
me or wherever they hit that button and then the
car looks I mean to me, it looks like that
vehicle is backing out. So I'm walking through and I'm
kind of like I'm cautiously approaching, and then I'll even
stop and see if they're gonna go, And then you
(27:51):
realize that there's no one in there. And then someone
walks it behind you with two shopping bags in their hand,
and you know they also push the button opened the
gate and uh and and dump it in there. Or
I'm trying to back out from the opposite side, you know,
like on the other side of the aisle, and somebody
has pushed the button and I think that cars in reverse.
I'm gonna wait. So I've sit there waiting and then
it's forty five seconds later and they still haven't moved
(28:13):
and then again, somebody walks up with shopping bags in
their hand, and then they all pile into the minivan
or whatever it is that that reverse light feature on
GM cars and trucks is driving me crazy. Oh have
you ever been driving in a crowded parking lot looking
for spot to park and you see the reverse lights?
You know what, That's one situation I haven't happened, had
happened yet. I've been more in the position where I'm
(28:33):
waiting for somebody. Yeah, yeah, that's better frustrated. So anyway,
that's I wonder if anybody else is experiencing that or
angry with that, let us know. Yeah, let's see what
do we have next about listener mail? Let's do listener mail? Alright, So, um,
all right, here, I've got one from Josh Baker. Josh
Baker writes in a lot and this is something from Facebook.
(28:55):
That's why I'm using his full name. I know that
he doesn't care. Um, so Josh writes in and he says,
I read an MSN Auto's Hot Ride article magazine earlier
this morning on a place that looks like a fun
place to kind of tool around, and I don't think
it's that far from you guys. It's called Old Car City, USA,
and it's located in White Georgia. He says, I was
going to add a link to Facebook, but it didn't
(29:16):
like the link, et cetera. And uh, and I'll tell you, Josh,
this place is really close to us. I mean it's
it's just up not that far from I think it's
Highway twenty or something like that. White Georgia. Trip, definite
field trip. This is a place that it's a few
bucks to walk around. You can take photo. I think
you have to pay extra if you're gonna take photographs.
That's it's an unusual place. He won't he won't sell
(29:37):
parts of any of these cars. He will only sell
the entire vehicle. Um. But it's a it's a collection
that spans acres and acres and you walk through the
woods and you know, if you if you look online
for like abandoned old cars and woods or whatever, you're
gonna find, you know, the moss covered cars with trees
growing through them and things. This is that scene. This
is the place where professional photographers go here to take
(29:59):
you know, some some almost like calendar shots. It's it's
a beautiful scene. The cars are are laying. They're just
kind of rotting back into the earth. You know, there's
a lot of these collections are I'm sure there's others
that are in savable condition, but um, yeah, definitely, Josh,
we will check that out. But White Georgia, it's called
Old Car City USA, if anybody wants to look it
up online. Uh. And you know what, I hate to
(30:21):
say it, man, but we're gonna have to do another
Nuts and Bolts because we run a little low on time.
But I feel like we barely scratched the surface of
anything we have. We've barely gotten into it. I've got
some interesting stories from from co workers here, one that's
really fascinating. Well, let's at least do that one. You're
going to okay, alright, So okay, let's do that one then,
and then we'll have some stuff left for next episode
as well. All right. So, uh, Paul Paul here in
(30:43):
the office, right, he's our producer on brain Stuff, exactly right.
And Paul had an unusual situation happened the other day
to his girlfriend. And I found this really fascinating what
was going on. He came over to my desk. It
was on a Friday afternoon and He said that his
girlfriend had just gone to a national chain for um
an oil change. And I don't know if I should
(31:03):
mention the chainame or not. You can get an oil
change quick. There's a different word. I don't know. You
know you used to make those uh you miss make
popcorn on the stove and it would pop up in
that kind of tinfoil sir, Yeah, what was that called?
Was that Jiffy pop? Yeah? I think it was Jiffy Pop. Okay,
So this is a place where you can go and
get a loop job. Um. I don't want to give
(31:25):
the name out or anything. Right, So this is his girlfriend, right,
And so she went there to get, you know, just
an oil change, and she's in the waiting area and
the guy comes out and he tells her that she
needs an automatic trans flush and coolant flush and the
service is going to cost two fifty dollars for both things, right,
you know, both services. And she says, I'm really not
(31:45):
in you know, my position for that right now? Exactly right? Expensive, etcetera.
And he says, we'll tell you what. You could come
back later with one hundred dollars cash and we'll go
ahead and do the service for you. And he says,
uh no, I'm not really interested in that. You know,
as as you know, exciting is that sounds to be
able to get the deal for less than half. I'm
(32:06):
not going to do that. It doesn't sound like a
good deal. And he says all right, fine, and he
kind of wanders back in. She says, you know what,
I've got to step aside and make a phone call, so,
you know, just do the world change and I'll be
back in a few minutes. She comes out and calls
him and tells him what's going on. So she goes
back in to pick up the car, and the guy says, hey,
by the way, we did those two services for you.
(32:28):
We we did the automatic transplush and the cooling flush. Anyways,
and he says, I thought you look like your trustworthy.
I can trust your face. Why don't you come back
with that one cash this evening? I trust you to
do that? And uh so I was thinking this is
really weird. I mean, this is that you know, when
he told me about this, and I said, you know,
(32:49):
there's there's there's nothing right about this story. Firsts the
national chain that we really can't mention the name of,
and we if we mentioned it that we could get
sued in a jiffy, and the guy the guy, and
the guy says, you know, okay, well, you know, we
we understand you don't want to do the service, and
then he goes and does it anyways. But here's the thing,
(33:09):
Like the phone call that she made only lasted about
ten or fifteen minutes, So now there's also the question
did he even do anything that he didn't so did
he or did he not do this service? And and
the other thing is that this is really dirty all
the way down because he's not going to report this
to the corporation headquarters, is not going to say exactly right.
And it's not like he has his own stash off
to the side of automatic trans fluid and his own
(33:31):
you know, flush machine, and he doesn't have his own
coolant there. I'm sure of it. So what's going on here?
Is this guy just on the take? Is he? I mean,
is he is he doing these services on the side
to make his extra cash? Because that's what I think
is going on. So the wrap up of this whole thing,
you know, and we had this little conversation about, you know,
this type of thing going on, and the wrap up
is that she called back to the place to report
it later because I said, you know, it might be
(33:52):
a good idea to report this to the to the headquarters.
Smart move. Well, she called the location, not the headquarters,
and off to the manager, and it sounded like the
manager was kind of in on it, almost like the
manager said, yeah, I'll, you know, give the guys a
pep talk and not really tighten things up around here
from now on. Uh, you know, we won't allow that
to happen again. But it sounded like he already knew
(34:14):
that kind of thing was happening at the location. Well,
there are two things we should say to be fair
from the shild One, Um, the mechanic himself may have
had very good intentions and may have just been worried,
like you really do have something wrong. I know initually,
I know you don't think that's the case, but maybe
that is initially. But that's for the two because that's
the actual charge for you know what this chain would
(34:36):
charge for those two surpsy. And then secondly, we have
to we have to make sure people understand that when
you are at a chain place, it's still a case
by case basis because it all goes down to who
is managing the location. So we're not by any means
saying that all these places are bad or full of
(34:58):
fraudulent people. Really not. This is uh, you know, this
is one of those cases where it's like one bad apple.
It's a bad apple. Yeah, that's that's the way it goes.
I mean, it happens. We've talked about that so many
times with other mechanics too. If you can find an
honest mechanic, hang onto them. And there's a lot of
them out there. That's in fact, that's the norm. You know.
The bad apples are the ones that are you know, infrequent,
but when it does happen, that's the one that everybody
(35:19):
talks about. And here we are doing it right now. Yeah. Boy,
but that was smart to call the manager. It was.
And there's little nuances to this whole story that I'm
sure I'm not getting exactly right or conveyed in the
correct in the correct way. But it was interesting, you
know what happened. It was a real eye opener. And
I said, definitely, do not go back with one hundred
dollars and pay this person for that service. You know
what I want to hear now for um for our
(35:42):
next episode of Nuts and Bolts. I want people to
write in with their uh, their mechanics stories. We want
to hear the times where your spider sense went off
for your intuition, your gut told you, hey, something's not
right here. Yeah, and you made a judgment call and
and you believe it was the right judgment call, right,
you know, And another thing is in our net. In
(36:02):
our next Nuts in Bolts episode, let's let's focus a
little more on listener mail because I feel we only
got to a few and uh, and really there's so
many great listener mail, um, you know, submissions that we
get that I would love to get some more of
these out here. Yeah, so come be a part of
our next Nuts and Bolts Scott, you and I both
have so many notes for this that we're going to
(36:23):
have to do Nuts and Bolts thirteen very soon. Yeah,
I mean, who knows, Maybe it's maybe it's the next one.
Maybe it's maybe we'll skip U up on end doing.
I don't know. Yeah, we'll see, but we have to
go because I you know, I've got all these all
these notes and not for nothing. Yeah, I mean we're
swimming in notes here. I mean, I've got them surrounding
me at this point. There's a lot of good stories here,
but I have like a pile of magazines, emails, some
(36:45):
Facebook messages. All right, well, listeners, help us out, help
us make our list of listener mail even bigger. You
can find us on Facebook, drop us a line on Twitter.
Tune into car stuff Show dot com to catch everything
we have ever done with like one exception, that's right,
one uh. And if you have some ideas, some sketchy
(37:09):
mechanics stories, some good car stories in general, now is
the time to send us an email and you might
just end up on the air with us. Our address
is our stuff at how stuff works dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, is that
how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.
(37:29):
Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.
M
Go behind the Wheel, under the Hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house stuff works dot com. I welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott and I'm then then. Today
is one of my favorite type of episodes as we do. Yeah,
it's the most wonderful time of the year in the
podcast studio when we get to finally compile all those
(00:24):
leftover things that we couldn't quite fit into one episode. Yeah,
there's some of that, and there's also quite a bit
of listener mail and Facebook posts and things like that
that we just simply can't get to. We try to
answer as many of them as we can, but we
don't always get to everything. And we said that many
many times. But um, this is kind of our clearing
out of our inbox, I guess right. And we as
(00:46):
we were recording this, we're not we having completely convinced
each other what title we should use, so we also
get to kick around, uh different titles, you know, Yes,
some puns twelve, Angry Nuts and Bolts as yours, that's
one thought. That's one. Um, I was thinking, uh, Nuts
and Bolts twelve, the Dirty dozen? How about Nuts and
Bolts Oceans twelve? Oh good? Yeah? Nice? Now all we
(01:09):
need is an ocean. Uh. Yeah, but the rumors are true.
We are doing nuts and bolts of the twelfth installment
and you guys, we love this. We love this whole thing.
Can I tell you something, Ben, I think that today.
And I've got a two piles here. I've got a
pile of just kind of notes that I've written down,
you know, over the last couple of months, just some
unusual things that I've seen and some things that I
(01:31):
wanted to bring up on this particular show. Uh, some
unusual story things like that. And I've also got another
pile that has Facebook posts and email and stuff and
try to kind of evenly distribute these. There's a couple
of things here that really aren't car related, some that
are car related. Some things will just come off the
top of my head. I guess maybe um corrections, I
guess here and there. But there's just a little bit
(01:51):
of everything that goes on. And uh, and I'd like
to start maybe with with one simple correction because it's
a recent episode that we did and it's not from anybody.
It's just something that I was uh investigating afterwards, and
I think that I misspoken one of our episodes. Oh,
laid on me. This is for chain drive cars, okay,
and we're talking about the Polarists slingshot, and I think
I referred to it as a chain drive vehicle, and
(02:13):
technically it's a belt drive vehicle. Now I know that's
not a huge distinction to have to make there, but um,
technically it is a belt drive vehicle. And I believe
I said it was a chain drive and I was mistaken. Well,
coming clean, you feel better, You feel like weight is
off your shoulder. I kind of do it. So this
is a bit like um, confession. It's a bit like
confession in this whole episode will be a bit like
(02:35):
sou Let's go ahead and start with some uh some
interesting post from Facebook here, uh Dan c on Monday
of this week. Actually he sent us this really cool thing.
I don't know if you saw this, he said here.
It is the forty five gallon snowplow. I took two
thirds of a forty five gallon drum, oil drum, and
(02:55):
other various parts in and around the barn, including some
stuff from an old plow, did minimum minimal modifications to
the green van and it works great. Also have a
three thousand pound winch mounted to a car seat frame
inside the van. With this, I think we're getting close
to the feeling ready for winter this year. You know what,
I watched the video for this. I did. I did
see this, and I watched the video. The plow was
(03:17):
mounted to the back of the vehicle right with the
with the gate open, and uh and it took the
bumper off. Oh yeah, that's why I took the bumper off.
And I watched him plowing. It looked like a field,
I mean, pushing snow up towards a big woodpile. But
it looked very effective. What a cool way to do that.
So it's a low dollar way to put a snow
plow on a vehicle that really shouldn't have a snowplow
on it. Yeah, yeah, that I thought that was super creative,
(03:40):
very creative. If I could well bend, you can you
can do anything. If you can well came. I mean really,
it's a great skill to have. If if it's if
that's one thing that I could I could tell, you
know myself, I go back, you know, if I could
go back and tell say, you know, say will this
is I'm your future self to Young Scott, Benjamin Young Scott,
Benjamin I would say, learn how to well stop hot
rodding on the high school park and blackwid hopping around
(04:02):
here like Johnny hot sauce and get your act together
and learn out of weld Yeah, yeah, you can write
your ticket. You can. Uh. Welding is a skill that
one can wield well. Not bad. That was tough. My
tendency almost came out. Hey, Ben, let's take a minute
to pause for a word from our sponsor. Do you
mean Paul is p A W S? Would I say?
(04:23):
If I didn't mean it that way? I hope that
you did, because today our sponsor is bark Box. Bark
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things like that for your dog. Each box contains four
(04:44):
to six awesome full size products Scott, This could be
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minimal processing and they often use organic you know items
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(05:28):
contain no glycerin, wheat, gluten, soy, corn or fillers, so
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(05:50):
And here's the best part of this whole deal. This
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So act now before it is too late. Check out
BarkBox dot com forward slash car stuff. Let's get back
to our topic. Here's a great note from our long
(06:10):
time listener Richard Are. Oh, yes, you know what? Keep reading? Okay,
and I've got an answer for Richard. Oh okay, good?
Do you know what I'm about to read? I think
I do, all right? Uh So, Richard says, first of all,
I'd like to know some things I used to be
in the tire business. There's some jargon that I don't remember.
I think the grooves and tires are called SIPs, but
I can't remember what those little bumps are where tires
(06:33):
are molded. They look like hairs coming out of the
tires from the excess rubber. I also think it would
be a good idea to tell people about hydroplaning if
you haven't already. Have you, guys, ever done a podcast
or partial podcast on tires. There's a little more. I'm
gonna stop right there for a second. Yeah, I think
we have that we have done a podcast on tires
and uh and also maybe touched on hydroplaning. Maybe not
(06:55):
the full episode I think if we did, it was
a long time ago, and it was about car control,
and I think there was a law. There's a state
law that's named for some uh some young driver who
encountered that situation and didn't turn out so well. We
also talked a little bit about it in swerving, you know,
the old debate whether you should turn in or out
of a swerve, and uh, yeah, car control. Yeah, I
(07:17):
mean I guess yeah, I don't know what it would
be called, but yeah, we've kind of touched on it.
But maybe hydro planting is a is a good episode
on its own because we could describe exactly what's going on. Yeah,
scary situation. So Richard goes on to say, also some
fun stuff. I took some people, family and friends this
race track where the person who hired the limousine rented
because you guys, remember Richard drives a limo. Where the
(07:40):
person who hired the limousine rented the raceway and took
his cars so his family and friends could drive around
the track. How cool is that. I looked up the
raceway as well, Button Willow Raceway. Yeah, very nice looking
road course with lots of configurations. Defends it depends on
who's racing there. I guess the configuration they choose, but
really cool track button Willow, California. But uh, Richard is
(08:01):
always our go to guy for limo information, so he's
coming to us for this. This this answer. And I
apologize Richard for not writing back sooner than this. I mean,
I think you wrote us on Halloween and UM, we're
just not getting back to him. Sorry about that. But UM,
I do have an answer for you. Um. You know
you mentioned the grooves or grooving that's on the on
the tires, and this is this one I've only got
kind of a partial answer for. But uh, sights are
(08:24):
the are the slits that are on the side of
the tire, on the shoulder part of the tire. The
grooving is in the middle part of the tire, the
main part of the tire, if you want to think
about it that way, like where the contact patch would be. Yeah,
the sights are on the shoulder that kind of go
up and around and you can see them from the
side of the vehicle. And uh, and I haven't really
got a specific answer for this because it looked like
(08:45):
they're the the part of the tire that are part
of the grooves that doesn't connect to the main part
of the groups, like the slits cut in the side,
and you can get your tires sighted, which is uh.
I don't know. I've never really thought this was a
good idea. But when you get a brand new tire,
you can have an extra service that they call siping
down to them where they cut really tiny little slits
in the the treadblocks and it supposedly allows for better traction.
(09:08):
That comes from a guy that used to work in
a in a slaughterhouse back in the nineteen twenties. That's
where all this comes from. Cut. He cut sipe grooves
into his rubber rubber sold shoes back in the Yeah,
because he was walking on this slippery slaughterhouse floor, which
is gross to think about, but he was slipping around
on these rubber sold shoes. So he cut these little
(09:30):
tiny grooves in his in his shoes, realized it worked,
and then he patented that and sold it to the
tire companies. Dude, that's fascinating. It is, I mean, and
I don't I can't tell you that that's for real
what it is. I mean, that's kind of the lower
that goes along with us um okay, and then the
last thing, and I do have an answer for you here, Richard.
Those tiny little hair like bits of rubber on your
car tire or your bike tires are called sprus. And
(09:52):
the way it's spelled as spr u e s there's
sprus and those are the little bits of rubber that
went into the vent hole holes when the tire was
being molded. So when it's when it's liquid, when they're
injecting into the mold or they're pressing it into the mold,
they have these air holes and that's the just a
little bit the rubber that kind of squeeze out through
those those holes, so you can you can remove them
(10:13):
with no harm. I mean, they're they're not really an
integral part of the tire. It's just part of the
manufacturing process. So um, yeah, sights and sprus. Nice. Nice,
you sewed it up. We've got another letter here. It's
an email from Jason M. Jason M is an automotive
engineer currently contracting at Google. And uh, I think you
(10:33):
saw this one too, said just listen to your podcast,
really enjoying them. We appreciate it. He's writing a response
to a couple of episodes, one is about the cam back.
He said, you asked, why don't Bonneville cars have a
cam back. I've been to Bonneville many times. It's a
religious experience. Go seriously, this is not optional. Just go.
And I've been heavily involved in the design of a
small streamliner, so he's actually building one of these. He said.
(10:57):
The reason streamliners don't do the camback thing is stability.
And he said, of course, you guys have seen the
world's fastest Indian remember when Bert Monroe was holding the
pencil and blowing on it. Aerodynamics, especially at the salt flats,
Like throwing a dart at a dartboard, center of mass
must be in front of the center of pressure. Small
heavyweight in front, light, big fletching in the rear. It's
very common for cars to get this backwards or just
(11:19):
too close together. Not coincidentally, it's also very common for
cars at Bonneville to spin out. Every throw dart backwards.
No matter how hard you try, it always goes forward. Ever,
throw one without the fletching. Also a long wheelbase to
give some more straight line stability. And Jason went on
to write some awesome stuff about radial rotary and uh
(11:39):
some clarification with the cam back. Uh, he said, I
love the moose test episode and uh. He also he said, uh,
when we did our Most Complicated Engine podcast, he said, guys,
the old to fifteen. I know this is someone else's list,
but the only thing complexes that had a turbo charger
(12:00):
with water injection, which is all fairly common stuff, is
the same base as a Buick nail head later bought
by Toyota, used in land Cruiser and later form the
base of Lexus engines. I knew we were going to
get some people saying that the complicated engines weren't as complicated. Sure,
but that was nine. Yeah. I think there's a context there. Yeah,
I think there is. And again that's somebody else's list.
(12:21):
But what I do. You know what I love about
this this note is that he compares uh, the high
speed cars of Bonneville to throwing darts and really, well,
that was well written. That is that I can completely
picture the way that he has laid that out there.
That was that was really well written. I mean as
an engineer, so I like it a lot. So thank
you so much for writing to us, Jason. Let's move on, Scott,
(12:42):
do you want to do some more mail or do
you have a you have a car story for us?
You know what, I've got a couple of things that
I'll just kind of quickly get out there and um again,
some are auto related and some are not. But let's
let's start with this. Okay. I was thinking the other
day the other morning, were we were, you know, doing
this uh this exotic car shoot. Right, we're talking about
Ferraris and we're talking about mass production because remember they
(13:02):
started out the first year they built like two cars,
you know. Now they're up to seventy cars a year
like that, and they're they're somewhat automated there, like semi automated.
They they do all the fit and finishing at the
end by work. The end work, like the end product
is hand assembled, but there's there's uh um mechanisms in
(13:23):
place elsewhere that that you know, robots that put things together.
All right. So my my question was this, I wonder,
what's the absolute least number of people is necessary to
build a modern production car? Now? I mean, if you
have a big factory and you've got most of the
line is automated, I understand that you've got you know
this this enormous you know, I don't know fifty I
(13:45):
don't even if I should stay a number, maybe a
five million square facilitation. What's the least number of people
that you need in that facility to put a car
together from start to finish. Well, that's a good question.
Do you have the answer? Actually I don't have the answer.
And that's the thing, like, you know, what what is
left in assembly that has to be done by hand
by a person? I mean, is there anything or could
(14:06):
it completely be automated? Well, okay, I think part of
the answer will be found in our sphere of what
counts as building the car. So do we then count
the people who transport the materials to the factory? You know,
I'm gonna say, like in the in the factory itself,
like where they do the assembly. Okay, well, you gotta
(14:27):
have at least one or two people to take care
of the machines. They're doing everything. So I mean, what
about what about I mean, could there be robots that
go around and fix other robots? Is it possible? That's
crazy future talk, guy, I mean, I know, but is
it is it possible? It is? You know, it might
not be possible right now, but that maybe maybe make
(14:47):
a good point. There's probably gotta be maintenance with within
eight years, I'm sure. And there's people that drive the
end product off the end of the you know, at
the end of the line, they pull him out of
the parking left. But that could be automated in some way.
Have you ever seen the footage of those super creepy
automated IKEA warehouses, Yes, yeah, where they just they don't
need lights because robots don't need to see. Very strange idea.
(15:09):
It's weird, man, But yeah, to answer your question, it
is it is possible, especially with the rise of intelligent
autonomous vehicles. Um, it may be possible for an automated
factory to manufacture vehicle that drives itself to the dealership. Yeah,
(15:29):
this is strange. It's a strange idea, I know, but
it just would make you think. I guess, like, what's
the absolute least number of people necessary to build a
modern production car? So think about that for a while.
You know, right in if you have experience in this,
and you can say there's there's at least six jobs
that have to be done by human and yeah, and
here's why, not counting administrative work. You guys don't don't
(15:53):
name don't name six people in HR just supervise one guy.
I mean, I mean, yeah, the the robots aren't going
to know each other. I don't think so well, they'll
they'll get around to it. Uh. Here just some quick
um car stories, some which are apocryphal, some which are
definitely true, and some which are in between. Right. Uh.
(16:15):
And also before we jump into that, let's just give
a big shout out to our super producer, Noel Brown.
Ladies and gentlemen, the man himself. Um. Every so often
they'll we'll look up if we say something that he
thinks is funny or dumb. And I consider it a
great I considered a great honor when I can hear
(16:37):
him chuckle a little bit in the background. Yeah, it's
tough man, ice, cold, difficult room. It's a difficult it's
a tough house. I need to tie so I can
do that. What mel Brooks though, Rodney Dangerfield, Yes, sir,
so okay. Apparently somebody stole Mr Rogers car. Have you
(16:58):
heard this story? No? Apparently a long time ago. Uh,
someone stole Mr Rogers car. And when they found out
who it was after the theft was reported on the news,
the thieves returned the vehicle with a note that said, sorry,
we didn't know it was yours. Wow, which I you know,
I haven't confirmed this, but I believe it could happen.
(17:19):
You know what. That's that's a feel good story, right there. Ben,
That's nice that somebody would do that because that guy,
I mean, everything I've learned about that guy, Mr Rogers,
seems like he was really on the level. I mean
he was. He was what he portrayed himself as on television.
He wasn't like one of these guys that you know
it says one thing on TV and then acts a
different way in his personal life. It seemed like that
was just the way he was. The genuine good guy. Yeah,
(17:42):
and former marine to which a lot of people don't know.
I don't think I remember that. Yeah, So here's another
thing totally different. Um an update on the state of
cars in Cuba. Now, I remember, Scott, you and I
did a podcast a while back on Cuban cars, right,
we did, and because of some sanctions that the United
(18:04):
States imposed on Cuba, Uh, there was a freeze on
the kind of cars they goodbye, so um d I
y mechanics on the island have done, just astonishing work,
phenomenal work to keep those old cars on the road,
and with some of the some of the ingenuity that
they showed keeping those on the road, you know, with
wooden parts, replacing metal parts, fabricating your own parts, reliably
(18:29):
incredible stuff. So here's the news. Earlier this year, the
Cuban government lifted their own internal sanctions, right, you heard
about this, right, so people could freely buy cars if
they wanted. Uh. The US still bans automobile exports to Cuba,
but other manufacturers like Pougeau and France, uh can sell
(18:51):
to them just fine, because these are you know, unilateral
US trade restrictions. Right. Uh, However, there's a catch, and
there's a string attached. You already know what I'm gonna say,
right Yeah, the markup on these things is ridiculous. And guys,
you know I'm cheap, but despite my bias, I think
you will also find this ridiculous. A new vehicle, a
(19:14):
new car because of these markups, can cost anywhere from
nine dollars now that's the bottom price, to two hundred
and sixty two thousand dollars. Scott, this isn't a country
where the average person only earns about two dollars a year. Also, now, wait, okay,
two hund forty dollars a year, and we're talking about
an entry of dollars. So and we're not talking about
(19:36):
any kind of high end luxury or sports cars. We're
talking about these are these are your average to dance sure, yeah,
these are things that would probably be what do you say,
mid thirties, mid thirty thousands. So they're available, you can
get them, it's just their unaffordable. And the problem is
a lot of cars from before the sanctions, you know,
are are sixty year years old now, Scott And no
(19:57):
matter how um, how carefully and tenaciously and doggedly you
maintain the vehicle, um and treat it well, the truth
of the matter is that you cannot have a daily
driver for that long and expect it to survive. Yeah,
there's just too much going wrong with it at one time,
and it's going to get to the point where they're
(20:19):
unable to put a band aid on that. Yeah, that's
gonna be the problem. All right. So I've got a
couple of things here that i'd like to cover, right, um,
and I'll do these kind of quick. Um. This is
something interesting that I saw it was on my way
to work. Now this is about a week before Halloween,
so I'm I'm a little suspect when I when when
I mentioned this, but I was on the highway. I
(20:40):
was on the on the main road coming into the
office here and a cyclist. Now there's a heavy traffic
and there's a shoulder lane, and you know, usually buses
going that lane. I think in the morning, there's a
certain hour or two when it's allowed, you know, you
can travel in that lane. And a guy goes flying
by in the in the shoulder lane on a motorcycle.
And here's what's the newsal been. He's wearing a green
(21:03):
money suit like the guy in that Geico commercial, you
know where the money peeled off right now. The difference is, yeah,
this is so weird. And the reason I mentioned Halloween
thing is because I was thinking maybe maybe, but what's
he doing on like a you know, random Monday or Tuesday,
headed into work, you know, or wherever he's going. I mean,
it was a full week ahead of you know, five
(21:23):
days ahead of Halloween, and it wasn't on the weekend,
so he's not really going to like a costume party
or anything like that. I mean, I don't know what
the guys deal. Maybe he stole this is so weird
and the way the way I would describe it, and
I only had a few seconds to see it, it
had it did have that like kind of like loose
bill looked to it, like where there were things flapping
in the wind, but they looked like they might have
(21:44):
been leather. And I couldn't tell if he had his
face painted green like the guy did in the commercial
or anything like that. He had a silver helmet on,
like um, a chrome helmet, and uh, you know, I
would never know if it was a guy that's normally
on that road at that Maybe I don't know, but
it was just it was a really it was interesting
to see it. It was a good look alike. I
mean it really was. It was it was quick from
you know, I saw it for like three or four
(22:05):
seconds and it was that fast and he was gone.
Got to be like an office party or something. I
don't know, but it was such a it was such
a fascinating costume. And if it was leather, how expensive
is that costume just to make for that one day?
You might as well be made of real money. I mean,
it was it was really interesting though. All right, um,
and I'll do a couple more things. You're just quick.
Not that there's anything detailed about this. I just kind
(22:27):
of kind of put this on everybody's radar. Micro SUVs.
Have you ever heard of micro SUVs? And you're growing alright, Well, no, okay,
I can be honest with you. Heard of it, don't
like it? Okay, so you've heard of them, but you
don't like them. They're built on a sub compact car frame.
They're there, you know, high seating position, which everybody says
(22:47):
is the number one thing that they like about these SUVs, right,
They always say that, Um, you know, you can carry
some stuff in it, unlike in a like a little
you know, small small microcar um thirty plus miles per
gallon something like that. That's good, that's good. I'm not
a fan of these either, but I just thought i'd
put it out there that there there's something called micro SUVs. Yeah,
(23:08):
and I don't think a lot of people are really
talking about but they just seem like because of their footprint.
The ones I've seen are crazy like top heavy, you know,
I mean, I think they could flip super easily. They
do look like that and I think a good example
this and I think this is one. I'm not sure
how it's classified, but that BMW I three is that one? It?
Maybe you know what that's a good nominee. I think
(23:30):
it is. That's kind of the look I mean, it's
it's very squat and very tall. Um it seems like
that's about um, you know, micro suv proportions. But anyways,
they just start to throw it out there that they're
a new format. Oh can I throw out a p
s A Yeah, okay, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for
tuning into this public service announcement of car stuff. We
(23:51):
want to warn you about game shows, particularly prizes, and
game shows especially cars as prizes in game shows. You know,
you've seen that thing Scott where someone's going and your
prize is, oh, brand new car. The crowd goes crazy
and the crowd goes nuts, and everyone's like, oh, man,
I wish I could have a free car. Yeah right.
(24:13):
The contestant maybe fainting because they're happy, but they may
also be fainting because they realize that it's not a
free car. You still have to pay sales tax. In
the United States, so this varies from state to state. Uh,
a lot of people didn't know about this until an
episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in two thousand four.
(24:33):
Remember this one, I think is this the Beatles story? Yeah,
the entire it was a Pontiac g six. The entire audience,
two hundred and seventy six people, Scott. They all got
a car worth twenty eight thousand, five hundred dollars. So
that makes the final price tag and not counting tax
seven point nine million UM. But the tax bill that
(24:56):
people got for it, it's around six grand. Wow. So
everybody in the and said to pay six thousand dollars
for this, for this free gift. So you know a
lot of people just couldn't do that. Six thousand dollars
is a lot of stratchy. It definitely, isn't it for
something to just be kind of I mean, it's toss nice,
it's nice. It's a gift, right, but you know, here's
here's a gift. And then by the way, you know,
(25:17):
get out your checkbook. Right. So we've heard about this,
you know, people have kind of there's been rumors about
this ever since, you know, like the early Game Show
days when they started giving out cars, because before that
you know, it's a big deal if you want a
stove or something like that, or washer and dryer. That
was you know, appliances were a huge deal. And then
when they started giving out cars, people went nuts. They
thought this was fantastic. And then there was always kind
(25:39):
of that rumor like, yeah, it's a good deal, but
you got you got that big tax bill to pace
and as uh, you know, Susie when the showcase showed down,
the same thing with boats, Same thing with boats. Okay,
but what's weird to me is shouldn't the show pay
for it? And then, um, also, just in case you
guys are ever in this game show situation, remember this
is this is actual advice for Scott and I. If
(26:01):
they offer you the car, you say, can you give
me cash? You know, just I would rather have cash.
They'll probably say no. You know what in the in
in the modern day, you know, when the when the
gifts and the the prizes seem to go into like
you know, the the tens of thousands, if not hundreds
of thousands of dollars for some in some cases, it
seems like they might offer a car and say, yeah,
(26:23):
of course that's tax free. You know, we've already paid
the tax for the sales tax for you. Maybe they would,
but um, I don't know, or your your winnings would
be enough that you could absorb that. I don't know.
But you know, back in let's say the nineteen six,
late nineteen sixties, for given out you know, Giant Cadillac
to somebody on let's make a deal or whatever. Um,
I bet that tax bill really hurt them at that time.
I mean it had to have, you know. I Also
(26:45):
this also makes me wonder what are the strangest things
that game shows have ever given away? The weird things? Yeah,
you know, Japan gets pretty weird with their game shows. Yes,
I do, they get really weird. This is totally unrelated,
so we'll examine it in a later episode. But what
do you have? All Right, I'm gonna do a couple
more quick things and then okay, this is just something
that's been driving me crazy recently, and that and then
(27:06):
I hope other listeners are feeling the same way about this.
But general motors, cars and trucks that when you know
somebody is walking back out into the parking lot, you know,
from from going in to eat or you know, the
shopping or whatever, and they come back and they hit
that button on their key fob that that is to
unlock the doors. When they do that general motors, cars
and trucks, um, they they illuminate the reverse lights the
(27:31):
system and they stay on. So here's the problem. This
happened to me so many times. I'm walking back to
my car and someone behind me or in front of
me or wherever they hit that button and then the
car looks I mean to me, it looks like that
vehicle is backing out. So I'm walking through and I'm
kind of like I'm cautiously approaching, and then I'll even
stop and see if they're gonna go, And then you
(27:51):
realize that there's no one in there. And then someone
walks it behind you with two shopping bags in their hand,
and you know they also push the button opened the
gate and uh and and dump it in there. Or
I'm trying to back out from the opposite side, you know,
like on the other side of the aisle, and somebody
has pushed the button and I think that cars in reverse.
I'm gonna wait. So I've sit there waiting and then
it's forty five seconds later and they still haven't moved
(28:13):
and then again, somebody walks up with shopping bags in
their hand, and then they all pile into the minivan
or whatever it is that that reverse light feature on
GM cars and trucks is driving me crazy. Oh have
you ever been driving in a crowded parking lot looking
for spot to park and you see the reverse lights?
You know what, That's one situation I haven't happened, had
happened yet. I've been more in the position where I'm
(28:33):
waiting for somebody. Yeah, yeah, that's better frustrated. So anyway,
that's I wonder if anybody else is experiencing that or
angry with that, let us know. Yeah, let's see what
do we have next about listener mail? Let's do listener mail? Alright, So, um,
all right, here, I've got one from Josh Baker. Josh
Baker writes in a lot and this is something from Facebook.
(28:55):
That's why I'm using his full name. I know that
he doesn't care. Um, so Josh writes in and he says,
I read an MSN Auto's Hot Ride article magazine earlier
this morning on a place that looks like a fun
place to kind of tool around, and I don't think
it's that far from you guys. It's called Old Car City, USA,
and it's located in White Georgia. He says, I was
going to add a link to Facebook, but it didn't
(29:16):
like the link, et cetera. And uh, and I'll tell you, Josh,
this place is really close to us. I mean it's
it's just up not that far from I think it's
Highway twenty or something like that. White Georgia. Trip, definite
field trip. This is a place that it's a few
bucks to walk around. You can take photo. I think
you have to pay extra if you're gonna take photographs.
That's it's an unusual place. He won't he won't sell
(29:37):
parts of any of these cars. He will only sell
the entire vehicle. Um. But it's a it's a collection
that spans acres and acres and you walk through the
woods and you know, if you if you look online
for like abandoned old cars and woods or whatever, you're
gonna find, you know, the moss covered cars with trees
growing through them and things. This is that scene. This
is the place where professional photographers go here to take
(29:59):
you know, some some almost like calendar shots. It's it's
a beautiful scene. The cars are are laying. They're just
kind of rotting back into the earth. You know, there's
a lot of these collections are I'm sure there's others
that are in savable condition, but um, yeah, definitely, Josh,
we will check that out. But White Georgia, it's called
Old Car City USA, if anybody wants to look it
up online. Uh. And you know what, I hate to
(30:21):
say it, man, but we're gonna have to do another
Nuts and Bolts because we run a little low on time.
But I feel like we barely scratched the surface of
anything we have. We've barely gotten into it. I've got
some interesting stories from from co workers here, one that's
really fascinating. Well, let's at least do that one. You're
going to okay, alright, So okay, let's do that one then,
and then we'll have some stuff left for next episode
as well. All right. So, uh, Paul Paul here in
(30:43):
the office, right, he's our producer on brain Stuff, exactly right.
And Paul had an unusual situation happened the other day
to his girlfriend. And I found this really fascinating what
was going on. He came over to my desk. It
was on a Friday afternoon and He said that his
girlfriend had just gone to a national chain for um
an oil change. And I don't know if I should
(31:03):
mention the chainame or not. You can get an oil
change quick. There's a different word. I don't know. You
know you used to make those uh you miss make
popcorn on the stove and it would pop up in
that kind of tinfoil sir, Yeah, what was that called?
Was that Jiffy pop? Yeah? I think it was Jiffy Pop. Okay,
So this is a place where you can go and
get a loop job. Um. I don't want to give
(31:25):
the name out or anything. Right, So this is his girlfriend, right,
And so she went there to get, you know, just
an oil change, and she's in the waiting area and
the guy comes out and he tells her that she
needs an automatic trans flush and coolant flush and the
service is going to cost two fifty dollars for both things, right,
you know, both services. And she says, I'm really not
(31:45):
in you know, my position for that right now? Exactly right? Expensive, etcetera.
And he says, we'll tell you what. You could come
back later with one hundred dollars cash and we'll go
ahead and do the service for you. And he says,
uh no, I'm not really interested in that. You know,
as as you know, exciting is that sounds to be
able to get the deal for less than half. I'm
(32:06):
not going to do that. It doesn't sound like a
good deal. And he says all right, fine, and he
kind of wanders back in. She says, you know what,
I've got to step aside and make a phone call, so,
you know, just do the world change and I'll be
back in a few minutes. She comes out and calls
him and tells him what's going on. So she goes
back in to pick up the car, and the guy says, hey,
by the way, we did those two services for you.
(32:28):
We we did the automatic transplush and the cooling flush. Anyways,
and he says, I thought you look like your trustworthy.
I can trust your face. Why don't you come back
with that one cash this evening? I trust you to
do that? And uh so I was thinking this is
really weird. I mean, this is that you know, when
he told me about this, and I said, you know,
(32:49):
there's there's there's nothing right about this story. Firsts the
national chain that we really can't mention the name of,
and we if we mentioned it that we could get
sued in a jiffy, and the guy the guy, and
the guy says, you know, okay, well, you know, we
we understand you don't want to do the service, and
then he goes and does it anyways. But here's the thing,
(33:09):
Like the phone call that she made only lasted about
ten or fifteen minutes, So now there's also the question
did he even do anything that he didn't so did
he or did he not do this service? And and
the other thing is that this is really dirty all
the way down because he's not going to report this
to the corporation headquarters, is not going to say exactly right.
And it's not like he has his own stash off
to the side of automatic trans fluid and his own
(33:31):
you know, flush machine, and he doesn't have his own
coolant there. I'm sure of it. So what's going on here?
Is this guy just on the take? Is he? I mean,
is he is he doing these services on the side
to make his extra cash? Because that's what I think
is going on. So the wrap up of this whole thing,
you know, and we had this little conversation about, you know,
this type of thing going on, and the wrap up
is that she called back to the place to report
it later because I said, you know, it might be
(33:52):
a good idea to report this to the to the headquarters.
Smart move. Well, she called the location, not the headquarters,
and off to the manager, and it sounded like the
manager was kind of in on it, almost like the
manager said, yeah, I'll, you know, give the guys a
pep talk and not really tighten things up around here
from now on. Uh, you know, we won't allow that
to happen again. But it sounded like he already knew
(34:14):
that kind of thing was happening at the location. Well,
there are two things we should say to be fair
from the shild One, Um, the mechanic himself may have
had very good intentions and may have just been worried,
like you really do have something wrong. I know initually,
I know you don't think that's the case, but maybe
that is initially. But that's for the two because that's
the actual charge for you know what this chain would
(34:36):
charge for those two surpsy. And then secondly, we have
to we have to make sure people understand that when
you are at a chain place, it's still a case
by case basis because it all goes down to who
is managing the location. So we're not by any means
saying that all these places are bad or full of
(34:58):
fraudulent people. Really not. This is uh, you know, this
is one of those cases where it's like one bad apple.
It's a bad apple. Yeah, that's that's the way it goes.
I mean, it happens. We've talked about that so many
times with other mechanics too. If you can find an
honest mechanic, hang onto them. And there's a lot of
them out there. That's in fact, that's the norm. You know.
The bad apples are the ones that are you know, infrequent,
but when it does happen, that's the one that everybody
(35:19):
talks about. And here we are doing it right now. Yeah. Boy,
but that was smart to call the manager. It was.
And there's little nuances to this whole story that I'm
sure I'm not getting exactly right or conveyed in the
correct in the correct way. But it was interesting, you
know what happened. It was a real eye opener. And
I said, definitely, do not go back with one hundred
dollars and pay this person for that service. You know
what I want to hear now for um for our
(35:42):
next episode of Nuts and Bolts. I want people to
write in with their uh, their mechanics stories. We want
to hear the times where your spider sense went off
for your intuition, your gut told you, hey, something's not
right here. Yeah, and you made a judgment call and
and you believe it was the right judgment call, right,
you know, And another thing is in our net. In
(36:02):
our next Nuts in Bolts episode, let's let's focus a
little more on listener mail because I feel we only
got to a few and uh, and really there's so
many great listener mail, um, you know, submissions that we
get that I would love to get some more of
these out here. Yeah, so come be a part of
our next Nuts and Bolts Scott, you and I both
have so many notes for this that we're going to
(36:23):
have to do Nuts and Bolts thirteen very soon. Yeah,
I mean, who knows, Maybe it's maybe it's the next one.
Maybe it's maybe we'll skip U up on end doing.
I don't know. Yeah, we'll see, but we have to
go because I you know, I've got all these all
these notes and not for nothing. Yeah, I mean we're
swimming in notes here. I mean, I've got them surrounding
me at this point. There's a lot of good stories here,
but I have like a pile of magazines, emails, some
(36:45):
Facebook messages. All right, well, listeners, help us out, help
us make our list of listener mail even bigger. You
can find us on Facebook, drop us a line on Twitter.
Tune into car stuff Show dot com to catch everything
we have ever done with like one exception, that's right,
one uh. And if you have some ideas, some sketchy
(37:09):
mechanics stories, some good car stories in general, now is
the time to send us an email and you might
just end up on the air with us. Our address
is our stuff at how stuff works dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, is that
how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.
(37:29):
Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.
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