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Episode 32 – Ewy, Elon and Extradition (Send in the Green Berets)

Welcome to the Auto-podcast that did NOT get 100 mill to be on Spotify exclusively!

Sponsors:

Fort’s Toyota of Pekin.  www.toyota-pekin.com

CASEY LAW Office.  CLOpeoria.com

YOU!  You can sponsor too!  Via PATREON you can help us offset those fees that come with running an automotive podcast!  Thank you patreon subscribers!

Tribute to John

Loss of a fan and friend, John Deering.  Eric with him and he was a Toyota corporate colleague of Regan’s.  John passed away from complications of COVID 19 after nearly 2 months of fighting.   I know he listened to every show (That Regan was on at least!)  Good dude.  Dad.  Our prayers go out to the family.

Feedback and Apple Reviews!

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Projects:

(Where we talk about what’s going on with our cars or projects, secret loves????)

Eric:

Waxing lessons… Wax on…  Wax off.

Lessons on how to wax a car with my son.

The Chemical Guys…  Stripper…  Clay Bars … Oh mama!  Not only do they sell some amazing products… They have videos to show you how to use them!  Clay bars intimidate you?  Watch the vid!  New sponsor material???

Ewy Roquist stole my heart in the toy aisle at Wal Mart.  Eric is pretty sure that he had a past life that involved a love for a certain Mercedes Benz female rally driver.  From the moment he saw her tribute car in the toy isle of Pekin Wal Mart… He had to find out more about this mysterious Mrs Rosqvist.  At some point… Eric was trying to see if there is anything to this Time Travel thing.  No success yet… But we are not giving up hope!

Watch the promo video from MB that sealed the deal on Eric’s unrequited love for the Swedish speed demon!

Daryl:

Took the Memorial Day weekend to clean and sort all the parts for my 58 Plymouth. What a mess. Turns out I’m missing more interior stuff than I thought, but I have a lot of spare exterior trim pieces. That should offset the cost of other items I’ll need… like seats.

I’m also tracking down parts all over the country, and responding to the old farts who say “you’ll never get that put together.” Watch me.

Other than that, I’m rebuilding more carburetors in my spare time. I just did a Carter BBD with the later stepper motor on it for emissions compliance. Learned a lot there, and having fun. Carbs are magical.

Headlines

TWISM:

Those dang kids and their burnouts in the B-Dubs parking lot.

Cars & Coffee opener pushed to July 4th.  What time are you setting your alarm clock for?

International:

Midsize Pickups Auto Industry’s New MVPs

Small trucks are the industry darling during the Covid 19 crisis…  Past situations like this have been full size trucks.  We have no idea…  But guess anyway why this is.

New leader at Aston Martin

Tobias Moers who is the chief executive at AMG will not take over the head of Aston Martin.  AMG already supplies a lot to Aston…  Will we see lots more German influence, or a full blown takeover sometime soon?

Headlines that tell a story:

  • Hertz Files For Bankruptcy After 16,000 Employees Were Let Go And CEO Made Over $9 Million – FORBeS
  • How Rental Car Companies are being disrupted – Motley Fool
  • Car Rental Companies Selling Cars: How to Get Budget Used Vehicles From Hertz, Enterprise, Avis and Others – Newsweek
  • COVID-19 impact on rental car companies also hurts automakers – Detroit Free PressWhere in the World is Carlos Goshn

According to CNN:  The nation’s rental car companies are in deep trouble. And that’s another blow for the already struggling auto industry.

During normal times rental car companies account for 10% or more of US new car sales — an estimated 1.7 million to 1.9 million cars purchases last year. But these are not normal times. Far from it.

But rental car companies get two-thirds of their revenue from airport locations. With flying down 94% in April and May, according to data of people passing through TSA checkpoints, there are far fewer people needing to rent cars.

Nissan Posts Biggest Loss in 20 Years, Unveils Turnaround Plan

Nissan, one of the largest suppliers of rental cars in the united states is not taking this downturn very well!

Carlos Ghosn: US ex-Green Beret and son arrested over escape from Japan

Speaking of Nissan… Its been a while since we talked about “Where in the World is Carlos Goshn”.  News about his green beret accomplices getting charged for aiding his escape from Japan bring him back into our spotlight.

National:

Automakers’ Catch-Up Plan? Skip Summer Breaks

American Honda, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have told union workers that they will not be getting their usual summer break.  This is because of all that vacation time they took this spring during the stay at home orders.  Think some grievances will be filed?

Lets add insult to injury…  

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles says it overpaid about 24,000 hourly employees will they were furloughed during the COVID crisis.  We’ll be needing that money back…  So, if you could work Saturday, that’d be great.

In “News of the Obvious”  Electric Car Sales are hurting with the lower gas prices.

May 21, 2020—Cheaper fuel caused by statewide shutdowns during the coronavirus could lead to electric vehicle sales slowing down, reported ABC News.

Better than heated seats?

Ford Motor Co. is rolling out new software for its Police Interceptor Utility vehicles to heat their passenger compartments to temperatures as hot as Death Valley on its warmest day to disinfect the interior against the coronavirus. The technology, Ford said Wednesday, heats the interior above 133 degrees for 15 minutes to kill the virus — figures that showed a quick reduction in the virus’s stability, according to a study by the World Health Organization. It is immediately available for 2013-19 model-year vehicles in the United States, Canada and other countries.
Source: The Detroit News

Pandemic doesn’t detour collector car searchers

Just because everyone was cooped up at home in April, it didn’t mean they weren’t shopping for collector cars. Nor, however, did it mean they were shopping for anything out of the ordinary.

Monthly searches on the ClassicCars.com Marketplace website in April showed amazing consistency in both year/make/model and the more general “any year” search categories.

In the year/make/model category, the 1967 Ford Mustang moved up from second to first place as the 1969 Dodge Charger slipped out of first place for the first time in 4 months. The Charger slipped to third, behind the Mustang and the 1967 Chevy Impala, which had been third the previous 2 months.

The top-6 in that listing has shown strong stability in recent months, the ’67 Mustang, ’69 Charger and ’67 Impala joined by the ’69 and ’65 Mustangs and the ’69 Camaro.

Moving up into the top-10 were the ’69 Mustang (8th) and the 1987-93 last-of-the-Fox-Body Mustangs. They replace the ’68 Charger and the ’55 Chevy Bel Air.

“With a plethora of parts and mods available, the Fox Body is becoming an appealing old car purchase,” noted ClassicCars.com Journal managing editor Tom Stahler. “They are becoming very popular with the drifting-set. I have said it many times, that I was never a fan, but every so often I can be wrong.”

Meanwhile, among the top-10 in the all-years category, the April searches nearly mirrored those of the previous month. Chevrolet, Ford, Mustang, Chevy C10, Volkswagen “bus,” and Dodge retained positions 1-6. Corvette moved up to 7th, swapping placed with Cadillac, while Bronco and Pontiac retaining 9th and 10th, respectively.

Source: Journal.ClassicCars.com

Local:

Ford Forced to Halt Production at 2 Plants After Employees Test Positive for COVID-19

Just days after reopening its American assembly plants, Ford temporarily shut down two separate factories in Illinois and Michigan because employees tested positive for Covid-19.

Moment of Musk:

Did you see it??  How about a little Jay Leno’s garage on CNBC?

Elon allowed Jay to drive the new Cyber truck in the Boring Companies test tunnel that stretches for 1.1 miles underneath Los Angeles.

The only way to get more musk product placement would have been to lauch them into space with a flamethrowing mounted on the hood!

BTW… If you’ve been following the COVID…  Elon was pro commerce and anti California!

RIFF ZONE:

Daryl: Folks asking ridiculous money for old, used, crappy car parts. My favorite new line “Bought this for my car but decided to go in a different direction.” What direction is that? Forward? Because the used distributor you’re selling on eBay looks like it stopped spinning 24 years ago. Also, if people can buy a new version of the same used part you’re selling for 20% more… you will never sell it. Good luck, boneheads.

Eric:  disgusting cars…  We are reaching new levels of grossness!

 

Cars of the WEAK!

Eric:

Hertz Rent Car…  Deal?  Eric takes his virtual currency of the mind and goes shopping for a Camaro Convertible locally… And then on the Hertz website.  It appears you can save a few grand by using the Hertz portal.  But…  Do you really want a rental car with 30,000 hard fought miles.

After that experiment…  Eric finds a busted up 1997 Porsche Boxster Cabriolet 2D in Springfield on Facebook Marketplace.

1990, manual trans with 130,000.  New struts and brakes.  4250!  Is there any more fight left in this Boxter?  (see what I did there?)

Daryl:

1993 Saab 900S sedan.

Cherry red, 5 speed 16 valve sedan that hearkens back to the glory days of Swedish rallying. This was the last year for the ‘classic’ body style 900 which traced its roots back to the Saab 99 of the 1968. A 2.0 liter 4 cylinder provides plenty of power and the 4 valve head meant it breathed better than the cheaper 900 cars. A turbo swap is just a junkyard away.

This poor Saint Louis area more-door needs an ignition switch and some TLC but the body is clean and these cars have the easiest clutch replacement in the history of modern automobiles.

Source: Facebook Marketplace

Thanks for listening!  Be sure to visit our sponsors and tell them that lunch is on Daryl.

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