The Return of Listener Mail

Have you written to the guys lately? Tune in ask they field listener questions and comments on everything from highways safety to mystery cars and more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house Stuff Works dot Com and welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott, I'm Ben, and today, as always,
we are joined by our super producer no special delivery Brown,
I like it okay. So as you know, sometimes we

(00:23):
will know as a man of many names and many talents,
and sometimes his name is sort of a preview or
related to the episode that we're doing, which which is
listener mail. It's listener mail. It's all listener mail today,
and I don't think we'll straight from that. Usually in
nothing both we try throwing some other stuff, right stuff

(00:44):
Ben SE's um, just interesting things that we've we've we've
come across some leftover tidbits from other stories that we've done.
But today we're just gonna focus on listener mail because
we get so much listener mail now that where it's
impossible to answer all of it. Um. Every day, we
tried answer as much as we can. Um. You know,
I'll be honest with you. Oftentimes it's it's far less

(01:04):
than I would like to let answer because we get
a lot of really good mail from our our listeners
and with a lot of good suggestions. So if you
haven't heard back from us recently, we are still reading
our mail. We're still compiling the the ever popular list.
That's uh, that is enormous. It's a huge list now
at this point of potential topics to choose from. UM,
but we are reading it, and we are we're listening

(01:26):
to you, and we are occasionally able to record some
episodes with some of those suggestions. UM right, you're at
least twice a week. You're really good at responding to
the emails. Often often I am less likely to respond
to emails. I read them, though I read every single one.
And he's more of a social media guy. And you
you typically beat me to the punch on a on

(01:49):
responding to an email, and usually you say everything that
I would have said, worked out perfectly. Well, thank you,
thank you, my Fred. One time quite recently that I
beat you too the punch, riding back to Rudy, very
proud of that. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty quick and uh,
oh you know what, that's that's something that we should
just talk about because let's um and and I don't
even have the note here in front of me. But Rudy,

(02:11):
who a lot of people will know, he's a he's
a long time car stuff listening good friend of the show,
rights and often with lots of lots of comments about
the show, lots of feedback, lots of again some great suggestions,
and um, I think he wrote in about our podcast
we did on the Highway Safety Films, yeah, and said
that he wasn't particularly a fan of taking a topic

(02:33):
and stretching out to three episodes, right, yeah, because the
only other time and he knows this, dude, the only
other time that we ever did this was with Preston Tucker, right,
and that many part two episodes. Sure, that stretched to
two parts. I just we can't fit it in and
it's it just is worthy of just a little bit more.
But man, that Highway Safety Films Foundation or Highway Safety Films,

(02:54):
uh story whether was was so rich with material? Um,
and there's probably more coming if we can talk to
the producer rather the director of that show or that
that documentary. Brett Wood I think is a guy's name. Yeah, Yeah,
local Atlanta filmmaker. Yeah, he's he's local, so we can
maybe get him in the studio at some point. We
have a connection with him, uh in the office here.

(03:17):
But yeah, I wondered if other listeners feel the same
about episodes that go that longer, as I know some
people like a longer format. Sure they've got a long
drive to make. Um you know, it's one topic that
spans you know, a couple of episodes or even three
in some rare cases. But just kind of throwing that
out there, what do you what do you look at this?
Do you want two partners? If you want three partners?
Even um, do you prefer it all to be in

(03:39):
one go? You know, one straight shot? So let us know.
I'm gonna pepper in our email address a couple of
times this episode so you remember. But you can also
find us on Twitter and Facebook with your car stuff.
Hsw at both of them, and that's your place to
see things that don't always make it to the air.
But what we're going to do now is re through

(04:00):
some of this mail response on air and you might
be on the show with us today, especially if your
name is Jonathan M. Jonathan, you wrote to us about
the the Maxian car. Now that's the member of Scott
that's the three Will, uh, the three will or that
Buckminster Fuller designs. Yes, yes, that thing shows up, but um,
well it at ums sometimes yeah, yeah, it was. It's

(04:25):
lovingly restored to uh do better than new condition? Really right,
and it's um I can't remember if the current one
that you can see now is a recreation, a replica,
or just a restoration. UM. I suspect it may be
a restoration. But there's a video that came out recently. Here.
I'll just I'll just read what Jonathan already already said here.

(04:47):
I ran across this today from Auto Week. Looks like
an interesting car. I love when you guys dig into
the rare cars and the respective builders. I think this
article makes the car seemed impressive because of how bad
it was versus how good Bucky claim it to be.
And um, Jonathan, thank you for sending in this link.
It's a it's a link to a video that I

(05:07):
had seen it floating around a little bit earlier too.
I think we might have put it on Twitter where
it's just people trying to drive the the Maxiane car
to I believe a concourse event. And as I think
the car looks unique, I think there's some really cool
aesthetic things about it, but the steering is terrible. The

(05:28):
engine itself, by the way, is located at the back.
This has that, um what is it tadpole design? Yeah,
two front wheels, one in the back. Uh, the steer.
The power is in the two front wheels, despite the
fact that it's a rear mounted engine pretty much. So
you still have the issue of having the drive shaft
go the full length of the view right, and the

(05:49):
steering Scott, you know, is the back wheel. Okay, that
was the other things the steer. The steering is a
little bit weird as well. Yeah. I think it's a
neat looking car. I really do like it. I and
I like odd balls like that for sure. It's fascinating, yeah,
but of history, Yeah, but is it more than that?
I don't know if I think maybe Buckminster Fuller a

(06:10):
brilliant man by all accounts, I think maybe it was
a little optimistic. Well, I think it was just more
of a design study than anything. Really. Yeah. I mean, sure,
there's talks of putting in an into production. Of course,
you know that the way the future is way every
good thing is gonna look. But honestly, I really think
that a lot of the stuff that comes out, you know,
they say that, but again, just to design study, to
see how it works, and you know, maybe elements of

(06:30):
that will make its way into production and we ever
do a podcast on the Damacine car. Man, it feels
like we've talked about it, but maybe it's just an
Enuts and Bolts or maybe it was a concourse show
or maybe you know, somewhere along the way over the years.
I know we've mentioned it. Yeah, because we went when
we were doing some stuff with Motorama and dream Cars,
we saw some of the original blueprints for the Damaxian. Yeah,

(06:52):
we did. And I think it maybe was mentioned with streamlining.
Maybe that was that might be a yeah, uh that
that that may well be. But Jonathan, let us know
if you think that, if you think that one was
worth a full podcast, I think it is. Yeah, you
think so, I do. I think it. Well, I've got
the list out now, so be on guard. Alright, alright,

(07:12):
I've got one here. It's from Nick from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
And Ben, I'll be honest with you, this uh, this
email about a year old. Oh, and I just haven't
read it on any of our you know, nuts and
bolts or anything like that, and I felt that I
should just mention this one because it's a great topic
and we should. We definitely should do a show on this.
Um Nick says, I love the show. Been listening for
about a month. I guess about a year and a

(07:33):
month hopefully if Nick is still listening. Maybe not, since
we didn't read his mail for that long. Um, I've
been I've been fun about one hundred shows recently, says
can y'all do a show about the Enzo Ferrari? Oh
and how about a show about the man himself? Too?
Thank you? So a great idea, so Enzo Ferrari, the
car and the man himself. So I think it's a
fantastic suggestion. Sorry, it took about a year to get

(07:56):
to your your email finally in the air, you know.
It just popped up in a search that I did
on my on my outlook, and I thought, well, we
haven't really read this one yet out loud yet. Look,
so I let's bring it. Great ideah, I guess. So
they don't all sit around for that long, I promise you.
Usually we get back to them right away. All right.
So we've got another one by a guy named Chris Kay,

(08:18):
and Chris has been Chris writes into us on a
fairly regular basis, and uh, Chris is responding to Kelly
Blue Book. This past weekend, he says, I was at
a flea market and a guy at a first edition
print of the Kelly Blue Book for sale. I saw it.
I didn't think much of it, and then I hear
this podcast. I'm wondering if it was worth any money.
I wonder I legitimately, I don't know. I want to

(08:45):
I'm tempted to say no. Yeah, I would say no
as well, just because if it's well, if it's a
first edition print um of a trade publication, like even
first edition prints of a lot of books are worth
less than you think they might be. So, in my opinion, Chris,
without doing too much research, I think you're safe. I
think you made it. You know. I don't think it

(09:06):
was a bad decision to pass it up, really, I mean, honestly,
it's it. I mean, it's an interesting thing to have,
maybe to put on your bookshelf or layout on the
coffee table maybe, but UM, I don't think that there's
a whole lot of value associated with that personally. UM,
I don't know. I guess maybe you could have to
ask some um antiques dealer maybe and see if they
have any kind of opinion on you. Know, some literature
like that and see see what it's worth. Um, sorry,

(09:27):
we don't have a good answer for you. I think
that's answer. Yeah, I mean we're not swindled. Yeah, yeah,
I guess so that's right. All right, so right soon
and says hi, guys, here's the suggestion for a podcast. Um,
why don't you look into the company called panas Is
the Pianos or Panos U P A n O Z.
It's a company, team organization. And he says, I think
they're based in North Georgia, and I remember seeing pictures

(09:50):
of some kind of exotic sports car from them several
years ago. And Jonathan, you're exactly right. Uh, this is
a company out of Brasselton, Georgia. And in fact, this
says a weird so sation with Road America a Road
Atlanta rather um in Brasilton Um strange they own or
Panos owns Road Atlanta and panas Is owned them themselves

(10:12):
by NASCAR. So NASCAR bought them back in two thousand
and twelve. I think they're kind of a subsidiary of NASCAR.
And then Panos Motorsports, the group owns Rode the Road
Atlanta course. So um and his company has only been
around since like nine. I think a couple of brothers
own an operator. Maybe it's a father and son it's

(10:32):
Dan and Don Panas and um, I think it's a
fantastic idea. It's a it's a great one. It's a
local sports car maker. Um, they've got racing history, so
you have to do Yeah, definitely, I think we could. Okay,
And next we've got Doug l Doug road in to
say hey, Scott and Ben, thanks for the great podcast
and big thing of transportation trivia and you cover it all.

(10:53):
I've gone back and listen to almost every Car Stuff episode. Uh,
there's always something new to learn. You are the duke
and all of all things automotive. That's very kind. There's
some big shoes to fill, and then there are a
lot of episodes to check out. Uh. Today I was
listening and Peter wrote in with suggestion about car badges
and emblems. I was gonna ask for the same thing.

(11:14):
My backgrounds and graphic cards illustrations plus mcgearhead at sketch
cars and their logos and the margins of my school
notes growing up. Meaning behind logo design fascinates me. You
mentioned there might be enough for an episode. I hope
you consider doing one. Well. Uh, spoiler alert, Doug, it's
in the queue. We just can't say when. Um, but
act surprised. Uh. Doug continues to say, Also something else

(11:36):
I'd like to learn more about a racetrack push trucks.
I have had attached a pick up, my nine pickup
I plan to make into an old school work truck,
a cruiser with weathered patina patina, rather modern upgrades and
no frills utility. Specifically, I'd like to fashion a specialty
bumper like those archive dragstrip photos. But I don't see
much info out there about the evolution of the push truck.

(11:58):
Behind the scenes, it's usually just the race cars and
the drivers. They get the glory. Obviously. I can't wait
to see what you'll uncover in the next episode of
Automotive Archaeology. Keep up the great work and thanks again.
And I think that's a great idea because that would
look so cool at that with that body style. Um.
But I've been looking at some old photographs of the
salt flats and the push trucks that they used to

(12:19):
push start those Um, what do they call belly tank racers? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and you know, by the way, just here's another heads off.
We just recently published an article on how stuff works
called Belly How Belly tank racers work, and it's pretty
interesting stuff. You know, where they came from, how they
evolved through the years. It's really kind of a neat article.
But um, good photos in it as well. Um, so yeah,

(12:40):
that's a great idea. I love looking at the photos.
I get lost in these photos, by the way, because
the all the Bonneville salt flat stuff from you know,
back in the nineteen fifties and sixties, beautiful imagery. Just
love looking at it. So push trucks again. We're definitely
going to do that one in the future. Fantastic. So
I didn't mean to poach your your mail, there's sorry.
I got a huge stack in front of here. You

(13:01):
wanna just burn through a few, ye all right, I'll
do them kind of quick here. Um. Alex from Connecticut
wrote in and said, during the North American Auto Show
International Auto Show, I was taken back by the beauty
of the new four g T and then I started
looking to the history of this car and figured, hey,
Scott and Ben should do a podcast on this. And
you know what, you're right. We have talked about that
in the past. Um, the rivalry between Ford and Ferrari

(13:23):
at the time, and you know why the FOURD g
T came about, the four g T forty came about.
And now there's the latest for g T and I
think that's the one that you're thinking of. Is that
the two six? And then of course the next gen,
which is the seen. We can talk about all that
and then like an all encompassing podcast if you want.
That's a I think it's a good idea. Pretty cool,
all right, so let's put that on the list as

(13:43):
well for g T. Thank you, Alex, I appreciate that. Okay,
there's another one. Uh comes from Dan from Austin, Texas.
And this is embarrassing. I guess another one. This is
from this year March. However, one of the lines in
this he said, Any says, I'm still a loyal listener
even though I haven't written for a while. But um,

(14:04):
I made the suggestion a number of years ago. But
I'll make it, but I'll make it again. Pulse Jet engines.
Oh yes, yes, yes, this is a pretty good idea.
I mean, he says, to the best of my knowledge,
Pulse jets are the only type of engine with no
moving parts. And I don't know if that's true or not.
I guess it might be. UM fascinating little fact. Good. Right,
So these engines were used in World War two V

(14:26):
one buzz bombs and they were used by the Nazis
on London. Uh, do YouTube search for pulse jet go
karts and see how people have adopted these engines for
useing go karts. That's pretty amazing stuff. And I have
done that and they are pretty fascinating. It's really kind
of a neat Uh. I'll just say it's a simple technology. Really,
we know moving parts. How difficult is that? But to

(14:47):
get these things going takes quite a trick. So, um, yeah,
I think it's a good idea. We'll do pulse jet engines.
And again, Dan from Austin, Texas, I apologize for us
not getting into this years ago when we started this
whole thing. Um, it's probably on the list somewhere. Well. Uh,
like Cheech Mayor and said in that Ghostbusters film, better
late than never, I'm kind of cherry picking my quote there,

(15:10):
I guess. So I guess, so all right, how about
this one and tell you what. Let me just keep
this real brief. But because this is a long email,
I come from the guy named Brian M. And Brian
M wrote in about a mark suggesting that we could
do because he said, some of my favorite stuff that
you guys have done, our favorite series, UM, are about
different marks of vehicles, you know, Um, you know, the

(15:31):
makes like Rolls, Royce or Bentley or whoever. Um, this
is one that we have neglected for the whole time
that we've been doing this. Um. Yeah, it's one that
we just haven't even really touched on, haven't touched talked
much about it at all, as a matter of fact,
except maybe when we talked about rally cars. Um. He
wants us to do one on Lancia. Good good, I

(15:51):
mean a lot of industry first, of course, you know,
with the production first. Um. And it's also worth noting,
as he says, you can buy a Lancia for not
a whole lot of money when you compare them to
their other Italian counterparts. So you know, the other Italian
cars are quite a bit of money, but here in
the US, UM, you can at least get you can
get them for a fraction of the price of the

(16:12):
other Italian markets. So that's whether a value. Um, I
don't know. I think that's it. It just says, you know,
they'd like to hear one about that. Yeah, well, well totally.
I would love to do an episode about Lanty. I
definitely would as well. I mean I think there's a
good um history there as well as even some stuff
that goes right up to modern day. Of course, I
love anytime we get an excuse to talk about rally

(16:33):
cars Group B rally cars in particular, right, which we
do have what was that a two part episode on
maybe Sorry Rudy, Oh come on man, Uh so we
do have a We do have some tweets I'd like
to check out here too if you have tweeted us
at car stuff h s w um. Alright, So j

(16:55):
M wrote to us and said, hey, here's the show
idea cell phone related accidents. I just bumped by a
driver on his phone. Well, Jake, first off, we hope
you're okay. Second off, this this is a huge problem
at least where we live, because you know, here in
our neck of the woods figuratively speaking, there are these big,

(17:17):
these big electronic signs that go across the roadway that
will tell you, you know what the traffic is going
to be, like if there's an accident, if there's gonna
be construction. And on the weekends, they used to often
say don't drink and drive, but now what they say
a little bit more often is don't it's illegal to
be on your phone while you're driving. And that is

(17:40):
because there have been so many accidents that the law
was passed here in Atlanta and uh in a couple
of different I don't know if it's all of Georgia,
no texting, no holding. You have to be hands free,
and I think below a certain age you're not allowed
to be on the phone at all, even hands free, right, yeah,
with like because we do the grap situated license. If

(18:01):
they it's a distracted driver issue, Um, you know what,
what you're done with that? I got something that's tan
generally related to that that I think that. Um, it's
almost and I told you so a moment. And I'm
hesitant to bring this up because because it's I was right.
I was right, and I'm proud of this. I mean,
you know what, I don't know if I should say

(18:22):
I'm proud of this, because this is not something you
should be proud of it. I was accurate with my
with my estimate. How about that? All right, Well, you'll
know what I'm talking about when I when I tell
you the topic, it's remember you were just talking about
the science of go over the road and we were
the whole thing with the highway safety films thing, you know,
the series that we did, and I was we were
talking there about how Georgia highway deaths are up like

(18:42):
twenty five this year and that's because of distracted driving,
and at least they're pointing to that right now. They
haven't got solid numbers yet, but they will by the
end of this year, I'm sure of it. Um. So
we talked at some point about the number, and I
think we said a couple of different dates, and then
I made an a gues estimate what I thought they
would be at that date. And I'll tell you, Ben,

(19:04):
I was almost right on. I'll tell you, I'll tell
you how this all played out. Um. And this is
a few weeks ago now that we recorded all that,
so you know, the dates are a little bit um
old at this point. But we quoted April seveneen, the
the death holl here on Georgia highways was four hundred
and of course I know this because of the signs
that the d O T that updates the number. Four

(19:26):
hundred people had died on Georgia highways and as of April.
Um my estimate, remember we did that whole thing with
the and the three per day and all that on
May fourteenth when we when we recorded that episode, my
estimate was four hundred and sixty four people had passed
away at that point. That was sixty four additional people

(19:47):
since we had done you know, part one, between part
one and part two. That's a huge, huge number. And
that was with all the and all that stuff, you know,
the calculations that did well. It turns out that was
May fourteenth, we were quarter of that as of May.
The next time I saw the official count. Yeah, my good,
my estimates four sixty four as of four sixty that

(20:09):
was the number. That was one off. That's scarily accurate.
It was one off. Can you believe that? I mean,
after so so this is uh. I mean, of course
I was happy that I did the math correctly, but
this is a that's an awful, awful number. And I
mean it's staying right with the pace. I mean, it's
staying that up so that that number is not going

(20:30):
to decline throughout the rest of the year. I mean,
I can see it continuing through the end of December. Um,
bad news. And I think that's happening not just here,
that's everywhere. Yeah, that's true, and we can, unfortunately, we
can anticipate those numbers to continue an upward trend because
we are No. I don't want to sound like some

(20:50):
curmudgeon telling the young folk to get off my lawn,
but the truth of the matter is that, uh, this year,
a lot of the people who are going to be
driving for the first time have their license for the
first time. We're born in an era where they grew
up with cell phones. So there's an interesting argument here.

(21:11):
Will these people be more likely to be better drivers
with a cell phone or no, that's a glass half
full answer. Or will there be a rise in accidents
because these people didn't grow up driving now and unfortunately
they might have seen their parents, you know, exhibiting bad
behavior as well. That's a good point. They learned from

(21:31):
watching what the parents do or other adults. So um, again,
I don't mean in any way to you know, to
be gloating about you know that I was white with
a number or anything like that, but lating. But the
numbers I find fascinating and and just horrific that this
that this number is climbing so high, so fast, and
I know that in other states that's doing the same
thing in other states is probably uh the rate is

(21:54):
probably much higher in states like with a higher population density,
especially you know, California, especially southern California is probably pretty big.
In New York, I could say d C definitely, just
because I'm sorry DC listeners, but uh, that's a crazy

(22:14):
town to drive in, it is. It is pretty much
mad Max out there. Yeah, So anyways, I thought i'd
just tell you that, you know, unfortunately the numbers are
staying on track the way that they have been the
first part of the year. Well, since we're talking about
future stuff, let me ask you this um our our
buddy Stuart l Hey Stuart, longtime listener to the show.
He writes into us pretty frequently, uh, he asked on Twitter.

(22:37):
He said, is it just me or does the next
generation of civic completely blow the current one out of
the water. What do you think, Scott? I thought this
might be uh something you have a pretty strong pati
I do, and you know what, we keep hearing not
only not only is it a great car just pacific itself,
but um, we keep hearing about this type R that's coming. Yeah,
and I just I just I really hope that it sticks.

(22:59):
It's point because it's like it's always yeah, it's coming,
it's not coming, it's coming, No, it's not coming. It's
back and forth, and I haven't heard a solid answer
yet if we're going to get it or not. It's
out there, it's gonna be produced. It's just a matter
of whether it's going to be available here on the U. S.
Shores or not. And I hope we get it. But yeah,
he's right. I mean, I think that the current generation
Civic Is is a pretty amazing vehicle. It is good

(23:22):
looks and a lot of really um what would have
been extremely high end features just a few years ago
or on this vehicle. It's it's really a pretty impressive package.
And we've talked before about doing a strictly s I podcast,
you know, the SI line of Honda vehicles, and I
think maybe we'll get around to that sometime soon because
I'm interested in that because of previous cars that I've

(23:44):
owned and just what I've seen on the streets recently
some pretty amazing stuff. Yeah, no kidding, then there's some
there's some great stuff in the work. So what do
you think? Do you agree with him? Do you what
do you like the new Civic? You're not particularly a
Honda guy by any means, but um, but what do
you think? I mean, just in general impression, the Honda
Civic is a great car in my opinion, and previous

(24:04):
gen's as well. Uh So, I'm I have very high
hopes for the new one because it seems like this
next iteration is I mean, blow blow blow with the
old Donald the water is not a bad phrase. It
is gonna be a noticeable improvement. I'll tell you this.
I'd love to drive one. I'm probably not gonna buy one,
but I'd love to take a test drive. So they're

(24:26):
getting closer to almost like what the accurate line is. Yeah, yeah,
but they're offering it at the Honda level and I
like that. Yeah. And now we just have to see
if that holds up, if you can have your cake
and eat it too, write Accura and Honda wise or
should I say financially? Um? Alright, so true, all right,
and here's the next one. Uh Kelly d wrote in

(24:50):
response to our U haul podcast, which was I think
a surprise for us and hopefully a surprise for you
guys as well. Uh. Kelly says, Hey, guys, listen to
your show on how U haul works. I've ever worked
for you haul, but I did work for Rental car
company many years ago in Alberta, Canada. Right, Scott, you're
nodding units. Yeah, I think I can lend some insight
into the poor maintenance that has occurred with some of

(25:11):
their fleet. And this is pretty interesting stuff. That's me
talking night Kelly. Basically, they have to look at incentives,
or perhaps the lack thereof. Worst case scenario, each franchise
pays for whatever maintenance is required for units on their lot.
Best case scenario, the corporation pays for all the maintenance
for the entire fleet and spreads those costs across the franchise.

(25:34):
Either way, unit maintenance takes time, and that time is
taken away from the unit making money. With the company
being set up for one way trips, there is a
huge incentive to send trucks and trailers needing maintenance on
a one way trip. A the unit is making money
and be the franchise doesn't need to worry about unit
downtime for maintenance and coordinating that maintenance. I don't like

(25:55):
this at all. That's passing the problem a lot that
is so crooked. It sounds like it's perfectly legal, but gosh,
what poor business practice. It's not perfectly legal. I'll tell
you why. I mean, they can do that within their
own corporation, fine, But when that vehicle it gets to
a point where it's not roadworthy according to the Department's Transportation,
that's when it's not legal. Then then they're not allowed

(26:16):
to be leasing vehicles to people that that are um
inadequate in some way. You know, they don't have the
right breaks, they don't have right the proper suspension parts
that they you know that that's true. They rattled pieces
loose that are that are now missing that are critical.
So it's just it's it's just crooked, but legal up
to a certain point, and that point is roadworthiness. Yes,

(26:36):
so Tully goes on says, the company I worked for
had maintenance for the entire Alberta fleet shared amongst the
corporate branches, so an individual units maintenance did not directly
affect the branch nor people receiving profit share from that
branch unless something grossly went wrong, like not doing an
oil change for over twenty five thousand miles and an
engine season. It happened a couple of times five thousand

(27:00):
on a U haul truck. Yeah, Kelly says regularly scheduled
maintenance was made known to the staff when entering in
the final dometer reading when closing rental contract. Vehicles were
often re rented before doing the oil change when vehicle
availability was slim or the fleets on rent. It was
always a numbers game. Reports were generated to see how
many vehicles and the fleet required oil changes, and if

(27:22):
the numbers got too high, upper management worked on plans
to reduce those numbers. A couple of things I always
thought were weird was how GM and Chrysler vehicles were
triggered at ten thousand kilometers for oil changes instead of
the standard five thousand and four vehicles were triggered at
eight thousand. This was approved by the manufacturer and did
not void warranties. Also, if let's say a Sierra Halfton

(27:43):
was returned at nine thousand, nine kilometers since last oil
change still under the threshold, it would get re rented
unless somebody really paid attention to their fleet for possibly
weeks on end, with the client adding significant mileage. So
back to U haul. Like I mentioned, uh, it's all
about incentives. Sorry for the long email. Thanks for the
great work, um ps. I know you guys don't often

(28:06):
often venture into aviation, but if you were to do
a podcast on the Avro arrows CF one oh five
would make a great episode. This Canadian super Jet was
an amazing interceptor but was canceled in fifty nine on
a day known as Black Friday and Canadian aviation history.
Some of the scientists ended up working for NASA. Now
that I think about it, maybe this is more a
story for stuff they don't want you to know. Canadian

(28:29):
super Jet that was canceled. I like that. That's a
great idea that you know what, that's a fascinating email.
I remember reading that one. It came in that long ago.
It's very new, and I just I was blown away by,
you know, just the the outright like passing the buck
that is going on there. I mean I couldn't believe it.
I mean, like, well, let's passed that down the road
and let them take care of that. And if they

(28:50):
do find if they don't, they can pass it on
as well. Why not, we're doing it too. But that's
an excellent I think that's an excellent, articulate explanation of
the incentives behind this. It was it was a good
it was a good explanation, and it's it's scary to
hear what goes on behind the scenes sometimes and some
of these big, big companies that you know, they lose
track of the little details along the way. So yeah,

(29:11):
no kidens. Sounds like they kind of they do know
what's going on, but maybe they're you know, turning a
blind eye to that a little bit. Um, you know
we I think that goes back to we talked about
the trucks that were for sale on the lot. Sometimes
you can buy used U haul trucks for sale, and
I think I said in the episode, you know you can,
But is it is it a good idea? Um? Maybe

(29:31):
we're answering that right now. I don't know. I don't
want to dissuade anybody if there's a great deal out there,
but um, I don't know. Well, here's there's like buying
a rental car, yeah that's true. Yeah, or buying a
store model, a demo model or something, especially anything with
a hinge. That's one of them. That's one of the
things I will because I'm so I'm so ridiculously thrifty man,

(29:54):
but that's one of the things that I will. I
will not fold on. I will not buy a store
demo model or something if it had as a hinge,
because people are coming in every day and pushing the
button on that, you know, on that coffee maker, that toaster.
You know, I've never heard this before. That's that's pretty interesting.
It's kind of a it's kind of a been rule.
That's a neat way to think about things like if
it if it has moving parts that people often fiddle

(30:16):
with on the on the store shelf. Yeah, don't do it.
Don't don't mess with it, because it's it's already probably
halfway through its life. Which is why I wouldn't buy
rental car, which is why I mean, you have to
be super selective, but I probably wouldn't. Do you mind
if I adopt that rule from my own? Sure, but
I mean, but I'll give you full credit. Okay, Well,
then we're killing We'll call the Bowling rule. Oh. I
think my dad actually already has a few things called

(30:38):
the bowling rule. Okay, I'll work on the name. I've
never figured out it. Changes will work, all right, So
let's see. We got time for a couple more if
you want sure, all right. Um, here's one from Adrian T. Now,
Adrian rights in quite a bit as well. He says, Hi, guys,
you've done a podcast on being able to buy expensive
cars cheap with depreciation. But here's a great cautionary tale
of the flip side of on an expensive car for cheap.

(30:59):
And this is all about actually coming from an Edmonds
article about a Mercedes Benz CL class vehicle that they
used for a long term road test. And it's kind
of the wrap up of the whole thing, like when
when they're done at the vehicle and uh, you mind
if I just read through it? All right, It's a
short paragraph, but it's interesting. Um. It says this article
on Edmunds shows how they bought it. Um, how they

(31:19):
bought a then eight year old two thousand five Mercedes
c L sixty five MG with fifty six thousand miles
on the clock for only thirty four thousand dollars. Now,
the original sticker price was over one hundred and eighty
thousand dollars in that vehicle. So here we are eight years,
eight years later, it's worth thirty four thousand dollars, so
he says. He says they paid only eighteen percent of

(31:41):
its original value, So, in other words, it had depreciated
eighty two percent. At this point eight two, one hundred
eighty two, one hundred and eighty thousands a car had
appreciated eighty two Now, the real shocker that wasn't already
shocking enough was the maintenance. In one year, it cost
them eleven thousand, five hundred fifty one dollars and forty

(32:01):
one days in the shop for maintenance. Now can you
imagine being without your car for forty one days out
of the year and have to pay eleven thousand, five
hundred dollars To me, what was even more shocking was
the additional thirteen thousand, six hundred and thirty three dollars
of recommended work that they didn't do, So that would
have brought the total to over twenty five thousand dollars
in maintenance for that one year that they owned this thing. Um,

(32:23):
they sold the car privately for only twenty thousand dollars,
so their cost of ownership was a staggering twenty five thousand,
five hundred and fifty one dollars. And that's without the
stuff that they didn't do, So you could have added
another thirteen thousand six onto that. Incredible. So they only
put sixteen thousand miles in the car. And when you
average all this out the cost um, you know, with

(32:45):
gas and insurance and all that, it cost him a
dollar sixty per mile to drive that vehicle for that year.
Can you imagine that, I mean, owning something like that
that was just sucking your wallet dry every single day. Um.
So that's a really good idea, is that. You know,
we talked about the dangers of depreciation. Maybe and and
maybe we can come up with some more examples of this. Yeah,
I would love to check that out in the future

(33:06):
because depreciation is so tricky and so unequal. Yeah, and
he says, you know, I'm sure the story will have
the notorious uh fiscally careful Ben quaking in his shoes
at the thought of that much, that much money going
down the drain. Keep up the good work, you're right, man,
I mean I won't get things with a fiscally careful

(33:27):
after we had just talked about. So that's that's such
a kind way to put it. I guess the boy
scout o got to me. All right, Well, I've got one.
In addition to being a cartoonishly thrifty I have I
have to apologize. Everybody's got some bad news. I'm getting
a look from our super producer Noel Brown, which means

(33:47):
that we need a mosey on out of here. We
knew we wouldn't get to every email though about this
one more, super super quick one more thing, Yes, one more.
This is just something that I felt I had to
fit in here because I haven't responded to this guy yet. Um.
Jason Morgan, who writes into us often, he sent us
a book called Against the Wind by Ron Airs, and

(34:10):
it's about the Iron Butt Rally. It arrived. I wanted
to know it arrived, and we've got it. We're taking
a look through right now and we are going to
in the future do something on the Iron Butt Rally.
I promise it's a it's an interesting tale. Yeah, thank
you so much. We love getting mail. If you're interested,
you can always feel free to send a send a

(34:30):
book our way because we'll read it. Um or you know, anything,
anything that that comes up. We get some really cool
postcards now and then. Uh so we're gonna head out,
but I think we're gonna have to turn for a
part two of listener Mail. Definitely. We promised we won't
do a listener Mail Part three at the same time.
But uh, if you enjoyed this, we'd like to hear
your take on some of the ideas proposed, anything from

(34:52):
Enzo Ferrari to push trucks to the Avro and beyond.
I'd also like to thank Rudy Jonathan, Chris nick on
at an A, Doug l Alex, Dan, J. M. Stewart, Kelly,
Adrian Jason, and I miss one name wrote into about
about the Lancia. That's a fantastic suggestion. I'll come through

(35:14):
my notes and while you're doing that, I'll go ahead
and let you know that you can take a page
out of their book and contact us on Facebook or Twitter.
You can check out our website car Stuff Show dot
com for everything we've ever done. And a very special
thank you to Brian M. Brian M. Okay, thank you
for the Lancia suggestion. If you want to write to
us directly and you don't like the old social media hullaboo,

(35:37):
hulla bou hulla bou hulla blo brew ha ha. You can.
You can send us an email directly and try to
get it in before we record our next listener mail episode.
Our addresses car stuff at how stuff work dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think,

(35:59):
send an email to podcast at housetopworks dot com. M
hmmmmmmmm mm hm