Live from the Car Care Studios, it's the CNC Auto Show. With your personal on-air and online automotive service advisors, Aaron Clements and John Ryan Mooney. So climb in, buckle up, and enjoy the ride on the CNC Auto Show. And we do welcome you to the CNC Auto Show and we are here to share some information on some ways to make your car safer, more dependable, and to make it last longer for less money and less hassle.
I am Aaron Clements and John Ryan is off today. But I am here and ready to answer your automotive questions and others will be here also. I'll mention that very shortly. Along with answering your automotive questions, we have a tech tip quiz to share, we have some holiday car tips, and we have some very special guests here with us today to give some information on car clubs. Car clubs will be down a little bit because of not being able to have the shows like they want to have, but it's getting close to time to start building that back up and I so much look forward to it. So, we have everything we need to make this show great, but you.
And you're able to repair that by putting it on the lift rack and dialing 706-863-5800. That's Saturday mornings at 5 to 10 Eastern Time. And we will introduce our guest and our first guest. Now actually we have four during the show and I'm going to mention this real quickly. I'm going to show you the type of people that car club people are. I thought this would be a good idea yesterday morning and so I made phone calls and within that day, just off and on, very little effort, four car club people are here and that is just so wonderful. Our first guest, Larry Garner, good friend, longtime friend, just known him many, many years, listens to the show when he can. He's with the Masters Miata Club located here in the Central Savannah River area. And he is here to answer questions about the Miata Car Club.
Now on top of answering those questions, we also will be prepared to answer any questions that come in. Larry, good morning. Good morning, Aaron.
It's great to be on this side of the radio with you today. We appreciate you being here and want to welcome you to the CNC Auto Show and we'll start out by telling us what draws people to the Miatas. Oh, well, the Miata is probably, well, it's got to be the most successful roadster two-seater ever built with over a million copies. It was first designed and released in the United States in 1990 and you have one. I do. I love it. I've had two.
I'm into my second one now and I know people with three and four of them at one time. It's just a great fun car to drive. It's not about power. It's not about speed. It's about the capability of the car and how it's designed to handle those. You know, when you see those curves ahead signs on the road, that's what this car is designed for. It's just a fun car. Well, even this morning, I drive mine all year long. I just love driving and I leave the top down most of the time when I'm driving. And it's just been one of the most fun cars I've ever had. And tell us just a little bit about the Miata Club. What type of things do you do? Well, the club has been alive probably about 27 years now and we've had as many as 100 members.
We're down a little bit right now because of everything that's going on. We gather once a month somewhere for a dinner and lately we've been using the snow cap. Everybody knows the snow cap and how great the food is over there. Sometimes we'll do a drive for breakfast during the month, various different things. It's just fun to get with a bunch of other people that have the same interest of a Miata car together and make a drive, talk about the car, what they've done to it. If there's a problem, there's always help. If somebody has had a problem, they're willing to help, happy to help you with it. So that's pretty much our club. And we're various people from all ages. I think our youngest member is in their 20s. Our oldest member, well, that may be me by now, past 70 and still going.
But we're just a various group, various backgrounds. Larry, one of the things that we do on the CNC Auto Show is, of course, we answer automotive questions and we love talking with guests, so we kind of combine the two. What we want to do is, as we're going to the phones now, we will let people know that if you have a question about your car, truck or SUV, we're here to help. If you have a question about a car club, how to become part of a car club, how to start a car club or about a Miata, anything, especially anything to do with the history of a Miata, you give us a call and we're here.
You want to let's go to defaults? Let's go. All right, here we go. Let's go to the very first caller up here at the top. Okay, let's go to William. William, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. Okay, all right, William's on hold. We'll continue to cover the clubs.
They're having a little technical issue with the phones. Okay, Larry, as far as on the clubs, what type things does your club do as far as when you meet together? You mentioned the snowcap that you go to.
What other type items? Well, we used to go to various different places for dinner somewhere within the CSRA and with what's going on right now, we decided the best thing to do would be somewhere where we can actually eat outside and the snowcap was perfect for that. You know, during the summer, you know, it's a little warm sometimes, but right now it's gotten a little cold and it's not conducive to eating outside. So we'll probably go somewhere that we can eat inside and have the room to build a space. But as far as when we go gather somewhere, we just talk about what we've done, where we've been, various trips we've done, what we've done with the car and just basically socialize with one another. It's just a gathering and the Miata is the cornerstone. Now, speaking of the Miatas, what's the little history behind the Miata? When did they come out with the first Miata?
1989, they were available outside of the United States and they built somewhere around 25,000, 26,000 copies and sold them. And then in 1990, we were able to get them here in the United States and over 95,000 of the cars were sold, an immediate hit. It was a simple car. It was a fun car. It was the first one that came standard with a bunch of features that cars in the United States had not had, like a five-speed manual, disc brakes all the way around and some of the other things like that. But the car has just been awesomely designed.
It's a 50-50 balance ratio, so you can get in those curves and throw the car around. Maintenance is just very simple on it, easy to take care of, just overwhelmingly a very successful built car. I know that I have had an absolute ball with mine as far as the driving that I do, and I know that I don't drive too many of the later model Miatas.
I know that I would enjoy those also, but just that I have a, what, mine's a 91. And that vehicle has, it really has a huge amount of power for it to be not classified as a high-powered vehicle. It just seems to, but you're right, it handles the road so well, very little to invest in it in the beginning, and that car just does not break. I don't have any problems with that part whatsoever. You just, I drive it hard, Larry. I mean, I drive it real hard. That's what they're designed for.
They're pretty much designed bulletproof. Now what is the, what's the best trip that your club has taken? As far as the club, probably Myrtle Beach. Usually there's something called Miatas at Myrtle Beach, and we've all gone, most of us have gone there together. Now as far as individual trips, we've taken ours, our first retirement trip back in 2011 when my wife and I retired, was to Key West. 1700 miles round trip, and the car never slowed down, and it was mostly topless too. So that was a fun car, you know, fun drive. Now a little later on, we drove it up the East Coast, ferries, bridges, tunnels, all the way over to Niagara Falls, 2200 miles round trip, and the car just performed flawlessly the entire time. And those are all things that we talk about on the East Coast, those listed on the West Coast, I'm sure they'll have some wonderful stories to tell there also.
They do. Larry, we are coming up on time to get a word from our sponsors, and we're hoping that they'll have the technical issues squared away by the time we get back. We've got a ton of calls there, we're just not able to go to them yet, but we will, so we'll be right back with the CNC Auto Show. Let's head back down to the car care studio with Airman Clements and John Ryan Mooney. And we do welcome you back to the CNC Auto Show. If you have a question about your car, truck, or SUV, you can give us a call.
That number is 706-863-5800. We're here with Larry Garner, he's with the Miata Club. Larry, tell us a little bit about the different year models of Miatas. What was the, you mentioned the first year, and when they were sold. Now, was there like three or four different models of Miatas over the years?
There's currently four different designs, each one redesigned from the ground up. Of course, the original one was the 1990 one that went through 1997. That was referred to as the NA. Then they totally redesigned the car.
They didn't produce a 1998 model. In 1999 through 2005, there was something called an NB. And then in 2006 through 2015, an NC, which is one model that I currently have. And the current model that's in production now that you'll see is called the ND. And will that go through 2025? Will they come out with a new, called an NE?
We don't know yet until that happens. But the four different basic designs, and they're all almost completely different. And it takes a little bit of learning capacity to know which one is different, especially the first two years. Now yours, if I'm not mistaken, it also has a retractable hardtop, is that right? The first one in 2007, they introduced what they call the PRHT, power retractable hardtop.
Either direction, up or down, takes only 11 seconds. Very simple. It's the simplest power retracting hardtop on the market today. I have another vehicle, the Volkswagen EOS, that's also a retractable hardtop, but it takes 25 seconds and has quite a few moving parts. But the Miata is just very simple and it works. It's designed very well. It gives you both the security of a hardtop, the fun of a convertible, and you just push one button and the top goes up or down. Very simple. My little Miata net does not have the power top, but it's almost, I couldn't picture being able to do it any easier. I know, it was designed that way. It was the first, you know, if you think back in the early British cars, what it took to put the top down.
I had an Austin Healey Sprite for quite a while. You had to take the top off, unfold it, take the frame off, take the frame apart in two pieces, and finagle all of that to get it into the trunk and then revert. It probably took about two minutes for that process. So the Miata is just a simple designed operation.
Yours takes about two seconds. And I did have an MG Midget for a lot of years. And I think that driving a Midget and driving a Miata are very similar. The biggest difference is the Miata does not break down with me.
That's right. Nor does it leak oil. And that was the one thing that was kind of a snub at the British cars when the Miata came out. We designed a car that doesn't leak and cranks every time.
Well designed. And I used to really love the little MG, but I did get stranded several times in different areas and had to drive back a long distance. I still remember one time I had to drive back to the beach several hours to go back to try to get the car started and get it back home.
Because it would do that. The electrical system was not that great in the MG. And most of those were six volt. Yeah, but that electrical system in the Miata is just well designed, outstanding. And of course, one of the things I did when I bought mine, it had roughly about 100,000 miles. One of the first things I did is I flushed every fluid it had. And I had planned on keeping it for a long time.
And it's just been flawless. It's just a beautiful driving car. Now, as far as the Miata Club, if someone wanted to start a club, let's say that if they if they were in this area, of course, I'd love for them to know how to join the Miata Club. But if they were interested in it, let's say that they were in a different city and they were interested. They love Miatas also, and they were interested in starting a club.
What would what could they do in that direction? So actually, two questions. One, how they would be able to contact you or somebody here to be able to join a club, or if they were in a different city, how would they be able to start a club? Well, currently we have a Facebook page, Masters Miata Club Group, and you might want to take a look at that. And if you're local and you have a Miata, send a request to join and we'll look and see if, you know, one, do you have a Miata?
That's one of the things that we want to be sure of. And then, you know, take a look at your profile and make sure you'll fit in with the group and then allow you to join. Now, if you wanted to start your own club in another city, say you're somewhere out in the Midwest and there's no clubs around, look for other cars, create you a small little like a business card thing that you can put on the windshield of another car when you see one. And depending on what car that you want to start with, may not be a Miata.
It may be the Corvette. It may be something else that you want to have general interest in of other people that own the same kind of car. And that would be the basis of starting it. And of course, social media today is very important in that. You want to maybe try and create a page on Facebook in your area. Various different ways, newspaper ads if they still have a newspaper in your area, public radio kind of things. But the biggest thing is to be social media today for that.
And the reason I mention things like that is almost any time someone asked me about getting an item done to a specialty vehicle like a Miata or Mustang or whatever, and they say, what do you think? Who does that type work? Or where can I get this? Where can I get that?
Where can I get this information? The first thing I always mention is joining a car club. Because you can save so much money, so much time, and not to mention the experience is so much better. Larry, the segment's out of time. So we're going to pull over and get some coffee. I appreciate you being here with us. Thanks for inviting me.
Oh, thank you for being here, Larry. And we'll be right back with the CNC Auto Show. Your battery is not fully recharging. AGM batteries are more efficient than flooded batteries when partially charged, consuming less power from the alternator. AGM, the better battery for today's vehicles. Learn more AGM advantages from Clarios at autobatteries.com.
It's time for more good stuff with Aaron Clements and John Ryan Mooney. And we do welcome you back to the CNC Auto Show. I would say that if you had a question about your car, truck, or SUV, give us a call. But we are having technical issues with the phones today.
So we will not worry about it. We will continue on and talk to the wonderful people that we have invited here. We have members of different car clubs here today. And we have had an absolute great time talking earlier in the morning with Larry Garner. And we have now Tony Connell, which I call him Tony Inkboy. Everybody does. Yeah, and he is the president of a great company called Inkboy here in the area.
That's during the daytime. And his second day job and night job and weekend job is the president of the Road Angels. And that's a lot of great people with a strong passion for cars.
Very strong passion for cars. Tony, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. Thank you, thank you. Glad to be here.
Oh, we are glad that you are here. Give us a little history about the Road Angels. Well, the Road Angels were actually put together by a bunch of fellas that were members of other car clubs. And decided to kind of just start their own thing. Got together back in 1996. Got together and started to hang out over on Washington Road. And it just grew from there and started getting their wives involved. It's a nice Christian fellowship that they were starting to cruise to restaurants and different events and just grew and grew and grew. And now we're up to about, I think we're probably at about 75 members, which is actually down over the years.
At one time, I think we were up to about 150 members. Right now, we're down a little bit, but I think we'll grow again and get some more of the younger crowd back into the car show. Well, what we ran into, of course, with so many things going on, there's less car shows right now.
Absolutely. So you get less people coming in to build interest into the car show. But as that subsides and they start having more and more car shows, that's when the membership is going to build up more and more. And one of the reasons I met today, I wanted to meet today, is to let people know that that is coming very soon. There's going to start to be more and more car shows.
People are going to be getting excited about it. Now, when I go to a Road Angels car show, there's always, I mean, every type of vehicle that I could ever imagine is normally there. What's the most unusual car that you've seen at the club or been a member?
We've seen just about everything. I mean, some of the rat rods, what people will put together and call a car is quite amazing. I've seen people's wrenches and skulls and everything else to make their little rat rods. I'm not into rat rods, but a lot of folks are, and I understand it.
It's pretty amazing to look at. And I tell you, the younger generation really do appreciate the rat rods. If you want to get a younger crowd excited, have rat rods. And what's really a lot of fun or with the reason a lot of interest is there for the rat rods is something that someone can get into and they can build as they go.
And as funds are available, but you're really not investing as much time and money into the vehicles, but you're still having a great time. Yeah. I mean, you can make a rat rod out of just about anything. There's V8 rat rods. There's four cylinder rat rods that people made out of little import cars.
It's pretty amazing. I've seen some that look like hot wheels on steroids, big wheels, big engines, shortened, jacked up. I mean, it's up to your imagination. They remind me just a little bit of what the gasser cars are to drag racing. In drag racing, they can build the gasser cars and they're not investing as much money as someone would in a vehicle that has all the looks to it. But they still go very fast and the people that work with them have a great time. And most of our club members are pretty much classic car guys. But we have some folks that are got more modern vehicles. We've got a guy that has a car that looks like a Lamborghini, but it's really a home built car.
And it's absolutely gorgeous, amazing work of art. And really what these cars are, they are work of art. From new cars to new Mustangs to new Camaros to new Mopars which have almost a thousand horsepower, it's pretty amazing.
And Tony, that's what I see. These guys, they'll have these cars and they'll have a huge amount of money invested in them. And one of the main things that they want to be able to do is just bring a smile to someone's face when they see something that they've never seen before. I see a vehicle that they've seen before but is completely polished and really looks good. So they'll spend many, many hours and days and a lot of money getting these vehicles prepared just so other people can have the opportunity of seeing what a certain vehicle looks like now. And many times it will also bring back memories for people that they may have had a vehicle like that at one time.
And now they're getting the opportunity to see it again. But also it's a sense of accomplishment that these people that do these cars have these cars because they're able to do something and then stand back and look at it and then realize how nice looking it does look. We actually do have a lot of older guys in our club.
I've got two 87 year olds in my club. A lot of their time is spent tinkering and polishing and basically just making them look good for people to look at. They take them to the shows and show them off and then some drive them all the time, some of them put them in the garage and wait for the next show. Right now with not a whole lot of shows going on, it's really taking a toll on these guys and they can't wait for this COVID thing to be over. Yeah. And we're getting closer.
So it may not necessarily be that long before something could come up. Tony, if someone was interested in either joining, like if they were in this area, they wanted to join the Road Angels or if they wanted to start a club somewhere, how would they contact? Well, we're on the web.
CSRARoadAngels.com. We're on Facebook and you can contact me via Facebook or on the web. And I've talked to many, many car clubs all over. We welcome new members. You don't even have to have a car to be a member. All you have to do is really love cars.
Love cars. Enjoy fellowship. When COVID is not here, we meet once a month and usually for dinner. And then we'll do cruises.
We'll do cruise ends once a month, which also hasn't happened lately. We like to get together and chat cars over dinner. Everybody loves to eat.
We just have a good time. And then if somebody is looking to do something to their vehicle and they're wondering about a good place to have it done or if they should do it, what things that they might get into and do it. Can they do it theirself?
Can they not do it theirself? The team members help each other or the club members help each other to do different things. That's all. We sit around and talk cars. We're at our meetings. We're always chatting about what we're going to do, what we want to do. Looking at people's other work and saying, that's a great idea. I wish I'd have thought of that. It's just a lot of fun. And I'd love to see people get the younger generation to appreciate these cars.
You got a grandkid, you got a kid that you want, keep them busy, take them to a car show. I think that's a great idea. And we're coming up on getting a few words from our sponsors in just a few seconds. So we will be right back. And if you would join us for another segment coming up. Okay, we'll be right back with more of the CNC Auto Show. This is the CNC Auto Show. Welcome back to more of the CNC Auto Show with Aaron Clements and John Ryan Mooney. And we do welcome you back to the CNC Auto Show. If you have a question about your car, truck or SUV, you just give us a call. That number is 706-863-5800. We would absolutely love to hear from you.
Don't hesitate to call. We have Tony here with us from the Road Angels Car Club. And Tony, we were talking about different things that the car club has done and been to.
We talked about the most unusual car that you have had. Now I've seen people going through the car shows that you've had. I've seen cars that range anywhere from a vehicle that looks like they might have two, three, four, $5,000 invested to ones that have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in the vehicle.
And all of them seem to still be having a great time. It's not about money. There is a lot of money involved in some of these cars. Some of them are well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of those guys trailer their cars.
I can understand it. Most of the cars probably are daily drivers that people drive all the time. They've got average amount of money tied up in them. They just enjoy doing stuff with their car. You don't have to be rich to have a car show.
And they have a good time at a car show. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Tony, would you mind if we went to answer some questions that we have here? Sure. I want to remind people that also if you have a question about anything to do with a car club or a specialty vehicle like an antique car or a car that's been modified, now's time to call for those questions. Let's go to Lewis. Lewis, welcome to the CNC Auto Show. And what can we help you with?
Yes, sir. I've got an 05 Tahoe. It's got about 300,000 on it, but it's in great running condition. About three months ago, I had trouble getting fuel in it. It kept cutting off. So I took it to one of the local GM dealers here, and they put one of these valves on it to vent. And I left there, got about five miles, and it wouldn't take gas.
It does the same thing. So I returned it to them. They looked at it. They called me the next day and told me they needed a new fuel tank.
And I'm trying to find out if that makes any sense. Well, the vehicles now, starting in 1995, the federal government said they do not want vapors emitting into the atmosphere anymore. So the car manufacturers had to come up with a plan to try to make it to where those vapors will not go into the atmosphere. So what they come up with is the EVAP system, Evaporative Control System, for the vehicles. And what that does is it does two things. It makes it to where if you're putting fuel inside a vehicle, of course, you have to displace the air or the fuel won't go in.
It has to have somewhere to vent. Now, many years ago, it used to just vent into the atmosphere, but now they want it to where it will vent in a place to where it can have it. Now, when you're refilling the car, it still, it pretty much vents back in there. There's a vent that comes from the tank that makes it to where the air will vent outward from the car. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. With that, now, if that vent is stopped up at the tank, then it would need a fuel tank.
But also, there are other items that can help the vehicle to vent, and that would be the purge valve or the vent valve on the vehicle. They replaced both of those. Okay. All right.
They got me close to well over $500. Okay. Well, it does sound like you, as far as for refilling to make it to where you're able to put fuel back into the tank, high probability the vent pipe from the tank itself is going to be restricted. And I have found things that just had them clogged up before and been able to repair them without having to replace the tank. But if you pull it off and it stopped up in a way to where there's no way to clean it or no way to get the blockage out, then it would be to replace the fuel tank. But normally, I like to take them off first.
All right. You know, they got me for well over $500 already. And then when they kept it, they end up telling me they want close to over $700 for a new tank. And I just think being a car this old will use an extra vehicle, but it runs well. I'm trying to figure out if I could bring it to y'all, maybe y'all can do something, but I don't have to spend that kind of money on an extra vehicle. I thought I could deal with just putting it in, but then it takes some time.
It takes anywhere from seven to 10 minutes to get it filled. Yeah, maybe more than that. Yeah, I've seen vehicles like that. I had one that I was having trouble finding out exactly why it wouldn't work. So I took the gas tank off and put it in the back of a truck and took it down there and started putting gas in it with it out of the car and was able to tell what was going on.
But yes, definitely we'd be glad to look at it. Do they still have the fuel tank off or is it on the car? No, it's I'm driving. I mean, my son, I give it to him and he's driving it, but it just takes the cars and great. I mean, the Tahoe's in good running conditions. We keep a fluid stream, good tires, I think that.
And I'm not against putting money in it, but I just think you hear, they got me pretty hard on that and I'm really not happy with them. They should have found that to start with before replacing all these valves and all and then come tell me two days later I need to do paint. So he likes the car, but he just has to take the day off work to put gas in it. That's about right, yeah. And I'm trying to help him out with that if it's somewhat feasible.
I can't see much interest in putting a whole new gas tank in it. I just think that's way out of line. And we're real glad to do it. Now, we would need to start from scratch because we like to go from the very beginning. We don't assume anything. We like to, when we start, start from the very beginning and work our way through all the process. I agree with that.
I'd rather for everybody to have their own stuff, I just think. But absolutely. We would be glad to. And the short answer to your question, though, is there is a chance you could need a gas tank, but also it would be, there also could be a blockage that can be removed instead of replacing it. Well, I'm thinking with y'all's history and y'all's knowledge, you can just lay your hand on an eagle. That's what I've been told, but that's why I'm calling you.
I promise you that's not the case. We work very, we have to put a lot of thought into these vehicles the same way. As a matter of fact, our producer here, he also helps with the shop a lot.
He was working just last night on methods to be able to get the computers to the technicians where they can see it better as they're working. I appreciate your time. Can you tell me which one of the shops would be the best one? I like all the shops.
Every one of them has, each shop has technicians that I know and love at each one that's very, very good. I stay at the downtown. Usually John Ryan stays in West Augusta. A gentleman named Marty over at Washington Road.
Then Joe is outstanding at Aiken. So, any one of them I feel good to tell you. I think I'm going to take it to the one downtown then and just tell them the history of it and it'll just go from there? Yeah, and that is, yeah, we'll write everything down.
Probably ask a lot of questions too. Okay, that's fine. I appreciate your help and I'll hopefully take care of it.
I think if you lay that hand on it, it'll help a lot. Hey, we thank you very much. Y'all have a good day. Thank you. You do the same.
Bye bye. Okay, we are starting to run low in time and the time clock is on E. We need to pull over for now, but we will be back on the road in no time. I'm Aaron Clements here with show producer Mason Rogers and we'd like to say thank you to Larry Garner of the Miata Club for being here and Tony Connell with the CSRA Road Angels for joining the CNC Auto Show. And we will be back on the road in no time. Thank you all for riding with the CNC Auto Show.
